Hedge Fund Billionaire Bill Ackman: TikTok is Manipulating Public Opinion Against Israel

Says Harvard Law Review Editor Should be Suspended for Attacking Jewish Student  

Edited by: Fern Sidman

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman’s recent comments on TikTok have sparked controversy and raised concerns about the platform’s impact on public opinion. Ackman stated that TikTok should “probably be banned” due to its alleged role in manipulating public opinion in favor of Hamas terrorism and fostering anti-Israel sentiments, as was reported by the New York Post.  He pointed to reports suggesting a significant disparity between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel content on TikTok, with pro-Palestine videos outnumbering pro-Israel content by a considerable margin.

Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management,  attributed the amplification of hate to social media platforms, emphasizing the role of algorithms in exacerbating divisive content. According to the Post report, he expressed worry about generational differences in attitudes towards groups like Hamas and cited statistics from a Harvard University poll suggesting that over half of the TikTok generation believe Hamas’ “barbaric acts are justified.”

On Monday, Ackman wrote on his X social media account that, “The world is quickly moving to a very dark place. Social media has been amplifying the hate for a decade as algorithms wind us up,” the Post report said.

Furthermore, Ackman highlighted a recent Reuters poll indicating that a growing number of people aged 18 to 24 rely on TikTok for news, while trust in traditional news outlets has declined. As was noted in the Post report, he also echoed concerns raised by some Republican lawmakers regarding TikTok’s perceived anti-Israel bias, which they link to its alleged connections with the Chinese Communist Party, as TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.

Ackman’s criticism extended beyond TikTok, as he also criticized other social media platforms such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as “X,” formerly known as Twitter.

He called for a fix to the algorithms powering these platforms, emphasizing the importance of finding common ground.  As was said in the Post report, Ackman argued that foreign governments should not have control over the minds of the next generation of leaders.

In response to Ackman’s claims, TikTok issued a statement refuting the allegations, emphasizing that its content guidelines are applied equally to all content on the platform and that they are committed to enforcing policies to protect their community, according to the Post report. They denied being influenced by any government and stated their stance against hateful ideologies, including anti-Semitism.

The Tik Tok spokesperson told the Post that,  “The content on TikTok is generated by our community, and recommended based on content-neutral signals from users, and is not influenced by any government.”

“We remove this content immediately when we identify it,” the TikTok spokesperson told The Post.

The controversy surrounding TikTok’s content during the war that Hamas launched against Israel on October 7th has also gained attention among Republican lawmakers, some of whom are renewing their efforts to ban the Chinese-owned app. Concerns persist about TikTok’s influence and potential alignment with the interests of China.

The app’s pro-Palestinian leanings were apparent when searches were done using terms such as “stand with Palestine,” which were viewed nearly 3 billion times while the top result for “stand with Israel” was seen over 200 million times, the Post reported.

TikTok’s own data obtained by Axios showed a similar gap in the US, with more than twice as many posts using the hashtag #StandwithPalestine as posts with #StandwithIsrael over the last two weeks.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told the Post that it “would not be surprising that the Chinese-owned TikTok is pushing pro-terror content” to serve China’s agenda – which has increasingly aligned with the interests of rival nations such as Russia and Iran.

The US government has threatened to crack down on TikTok over suspicions that the app was harvesting Americans’ user data and providing it to Chinese authorities, the Post report added.

The Post also reported that Ackman, a Harvard University alumnus, is calling for disciplinary action against a group of pro-Palestinian students at his alma mater. This demand comes in response to a viral video that captured these students surrounding a Jewish peer during a demonstration that followed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of over 1400 people and left 5000 injured.

In the video, the pro-Palestinian students are seen holding traditional Arab headscarves while surrounding a Jewish student, according to the Post report.  They shout, “Shame, shame, shame!” as they obstruct the path of the Jewish student trying to move away from the situation.

Ackman took to his X social media account to express his concern and demand action. The Post report said he called for Harvard University to suspend the students seen in the video and questioned how the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, Ibrahim Bharmal, could remain in his position after this incident.

“How does this man remain Editor of the Harvard Law Review? How are these students not immediately suspended? How does this not violate @Harvard’s code of conduct for students?” Ackman wrote in his X post, according to the Post report. He also posed the question, “How would Harvard respond if the affected student were Black, Latino, or LGBTQIA?”

Ackman has been actively using his social media platform to express his views and concerns about the situation, and he has garnered support from other business executives who have pledged not to hire Harvard students affiliated with organizations that blamed Israel for the barbaric Hamas attack, according to the Post report.

Ken Griffin, another hedge fund billionaire and Harvard graduate, has demanded that Harvard administrators unequivocally condemn the Hamas terrorists, Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, who has made significant donations to Harvard, has committed to not hiring the leaders of student groups that endorsed an anti-Israel letter.

However, former Treasury Secretary and ex-president of Harvard, Larry Summers, believes that denying employment opportunities to students goes too far, as was noted in the Post report. Summers criticized school administrators for not strongly denouncing the Hamas attack and the student letter but did not support Ackman’s call to name the students involved in these groups.

In addition to his comments on this incident, Ackman also weighed in on a letter sent by more than a dozen powerful law firms on Wall Street, the Post reported. These firms warned university deans that they would not hire students engaged in anti-Semitic harassment or discrimination on college campuses.

Ackman expressed his disappointment in the need for law firms and corporations to address anti-Semitism on campus, emphasizing the importance of a robust response from educational institutions,  the Post report said,

Furthermore, Ackman commented on a viral video featuring an unidentified individual believed to be a Harvard student expressing “love” for the Hamas terrorist organization.

The litany of blatantly anti-Semitic incidents at Harvard University has sparked a broader conversation about the responsibilities of educational institutions to ensure the safety and well-being of all students, and for them to take immediate measures to quell the burgeoning Jew hatred that has infected college campuses all across the United States, Canada and Europe. Ackman’s stance and the reactions of other prominent figures highlight the complex and contentious nature of these issues in today’s polarized world.