Most media articles are based on research, but every once in a while, a piece is based on personal experience. When that experience is in direct contradiction to what most media reports, we all should start to wonder about the real truth, especially when it affects millions of people. And TikTok is not only influencing world opinions, but it is also consciously manipulating them for anti-American purposes.
With its powerful influence, we all need to be concerned about what is really happening at TikTok. Despite reports that censorship has been removed from the social media giant since January of 2026, pro-Israel and pro-America content is still being banned.
A few months ago, I was asked to host a radio show and podcast, “The Rabbi’s Table: Dialogue Not Debate”, which has already broken into the top one percent of podcasts worldwide. Iconic guests discuss politics, religion, and their own personal wisdom and life’s journey. It is a show about disagreeing without being disagreeable, and is the antithesis of the incendiary programming that is found all too often on the internet. Guests have included cultural icons like Andrew Klavan, Dinesh D’Souza and Tommy Robinson; religious leaders such as Pastor Jack Hibbs and Bishop Juan Carlos Mendez; political heavyweights such as Ambassador David Friedman, Senator Roger Marshall, and Sebastian Gorka; and intellectual giants like Professor Alan Dershowitz, James Lindsay, and Robert Spencer. These iconic guests have opened not only their minds, but have shared their deeper values and personal stories. As a Rabbi, I look at everything through a faith-based lens, and the show is consistently pro-American and pro-Israel. BizPac Review called it “The podcast everyone in political media is suddenly talking about”, and it is a blessing to sit with these types of icons and have a genuine dialogue.
As in most of these types of projects, there is a person who posts short “teaser” clips on social media, and the Instagram account alone has achieved almost one million views of the clips. But while Instagram, X, and other platforms post clips without hesitation, TikTok has banned a number of them. And while that seems innocuous enough, what is concerning is the anti-American/antisemitic pattern that shows up when looking at the banned clips (which can still be seen on Instagram).
Jeremy Kagan is an Emmy Award-winning director and the Chair of the Film Directing Department at USC. An old friend, Jeremy served on the Board of the DGA for years and has been a respected leader in his industry for decades. And yet, a brief clip of Jeremy describing his experience of finding God through officiating a Jewish wedding was banned. No politics, no hate, just his own spiritual insights about a Jewish wedding.
Andrew Klavan is a bestselling author, speaker, and host of a show on the Daily Wire for years. Born Jewish, Klavan found God in Christianity, and beautifully says about Christianity that “it is the deepening of the individual within the collective – the Body of Christ”. Apparently, “the Body of Christ” as part of a theological discussion on a Rabbi’s show is forbidden on TikTok, especially when it is juxtaposed against the theology of Judaism and Islam.
As a Rabbi, one of my primary jobs is to teach theology, and between that and as a former Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, I have taught thousands of people the text of the Hebrew Bible. One of the questions I have constantly been asked by students is why Jewish holidays begin at sunset. By referring to the first few verses of the Book of Genesis, I quote that “there was evening, there was morning, day one” and explain that since evening is mentioned first, the 24-hour cycle for Jews begins at sunset. But this simple explanation of basic theology was banned on TikTok. Rather than wanting to help non-Jews understand Jewish theology a little better using shared biblical text, TikTok wants to keep Jewish practices unexplained, and in so doing, push Judaism farther away and distant from other faiths… and that lack of education directly increases antisemitic behavior and actions.
But perhaps the most egregious example of TikTok’s anti-American censorship is the clips they banned with one of the more courageous and informed men in our country, Sebastian Gorka, the Deputy Assistant to the President and the Senior Director for Counterterrorism, who was on the show from the studio at the White House. TikTok banned Gorka’s explanation of good and evil, and the good that is inherent in American culture and denied by much of the world. But perhaps the clearest example of how TikTok is striving to create a false narrative and influence people can be seen in how TikTok banned his discussion about President Trump being a great leader. In this clip, Gorka talked about how when he took on his new job, all of the people in the intelligence community that he interviewed told him that what they really want is strong leadership. Gorka then went on to talk about what an amazing leader Trump has been for the intelligence community and for the nation. But praising the President is something that apparently TikTok believes is against their agenda, and the clip was removed for violating community standards. A top national official streaming from the White House studio revealing positive accomplishments of the sitting President is apparently unfit to be seen, according to TikTok.
The pattern is clear: anything that is pro-God, pro-Judaism, pro-Christ, and/or pro-Trump does not serve their narrative and must be expunged from their site lest it educate people in the truth.
With over 2 billion users worldwide, 150 million of them in the United States, TikTok is one of the most powerful social media companies and radically influences the public’s opinion on everything from products to personalities to politics. So much so that in 2024, Congress forced the Chinese company to divest its interests, and over 80 percent of the company is now controlled by other entities like Oracle, Silver Lake, and other institutional investors. Yet, despite what we keep being told, the reality on the ground is that TikTok is continuing to ban clips that are pro-American and pro-Judaism/Christianity, while pushing out clips and platforming people who seek the destruction of America as we have known it. If a clip is anti-Trump, anti-Israel, or against the classic “American values”, for TikTok, that is the only material that they want to succeed. If content is posted that is pro-socialist (Madeline Pendleton, 1.5 million followers); anti-American/pro-Islam (Hasan Piker, 3.1 million followers); or pro-Palestine (Hamza Saadah, 7.3 million followers), then it is TikTok’s goal to promote that content, and they promote it passionately.
Because of the popularity of TikTok and its success in the demographic of 18- 24-year-olds, this company that was created in China is directly affecting over 500 million young people. These young people are now getting their information and “education” from a site whose goal is to control the narrative, and then the consciousness of the young people of this country and of the world.
And they are succeeding in doing just that.
Since TikTok achieved huge success in the last seven years, there has been a radical increase in antisemitism, hatred towards anything Israel-related, and more and more young people claim to hate America. Riots have increased, led by “activists” whose entire knowledge of politics comes from TikTok and the content creators they uplift. And the information that is actually true is squelched, preventing these young people from being exposed to facts that are accurate in favor of feeding them with anti-American propaganda.
There may not be anything that can be done about this censorship, but we need to be aware of it. A company conceived of and developed in China is grooming an entire generation to be filled with hate for all things that are embedded in Western civilization. The change in ownership may make a difference on a corporate business level, but it clearly has not changed the agenda of the company itself, which continues to promote anti-American and anti-Judeo/Christian values. This is the “8th front of war” that Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about at the United Nations, and it is an enemy within that is rotting the core of America’s youth.
We must all have the courage to be active in this war, by staying true to our values and educating others about the misinformation that is so prevalent on TikTok. We must support those many social media accounts that are pro-Western Civilization, and never stop proselytizing the Judeo-Christian values of America. And we must have faith that as long as we do our part in this fight, God will bring us support in ways we never could have imagined.
Rabbi Michael Barclay is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, Calif., the recipient of the Bnai Zion Distinguished Humanitarian Award, and the host of the weekly radio show and podcast The Rabbi’s Table: Dialogue Not Debate, which can be found on all platforms. Follow him on X or Instagram at @TheRabbisTable, or email him at Rabbi@NerSimcha.org.