Marco Rubio reiterates demand for banning TikTok amid pro-Hamas terror content

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio reiterated his belief that TikTok should be banned in the U.S. amidst the platform “being used to downplay Hamas terrorism.”

“TikTok needs to be shut down. Now,” Rubio said.

The senator referenced a report from the New York Post that pro-Palestine content has been favored in trending and the algorithm over “stand with Israel” content.

According to Axios‘ analysis, pro-Palestine posts have exponentially increased since Hamas’ terror attacks compared to pro-Israel posts.

Last year, Rubio proposed a federal bill to ban TikTok, which ultimately failed. However, this coming session, the push to bank TikTok may gain steam again.

Rubio has expressed worry about TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, being based in China.

“They’re just scooping all that up and that the Chinese government asked for it to have to turn it over,” he said. “So they know a tremendous amount about Americans in general, about our society, about what messages work gives them a huge advantage. Not to mention the individual data, people that they can acquire.”

At the state level, TikTok has been banned on Florida government devices.

The bill cracking down on the platform was carried by Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, in the Senate and Rep. Carolina Amesty, R-Windermere, in the House.

It was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May.

“Bytedance, TikTok’s parents company, is using the application to collect Americans personal and sensitive information and feeding it to the Communist Chinese government,” Burgess said earlier this year.

“Make no mistake, China is attempting to project power and is a very real near peer competitor,” he added.

And in April, the Florida Board of Governors issued an emergency regulation directing public universities to ban the platform from university-owned devices and block access from the university’s owned networks.