United States: CAIR denounces the possible sale of TikTok to “anti-Palestinian billionaires”
THE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the leading Muslim civil rights organization in the United States, sent a letter to Congress denouncing the imminent sale of TikTok’s American operations to an investor group including several businessmen known for their support of Israel.
In this letter dated October 28, CAIR claims that figures like Larry Ellison (co-founder of Oracle), Lachlan Murdoch (CEO of Fox Corporation) and Michael Dell (CEO of Dell Technologies) are “anti-Palestinian billionaires” likely to use TikTok to silence voices critical of Israel and its war in Gaza. The organization warns against replacing “Chinese disinformation” with “anti-Palestinian disinformation”.
The American law adopted in 2024 obliges the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok to American interests under penalty of ban on the territory. CAIR particularly fears that Oracle, expected to control the recommendation algorithm, could influence the visibility of pro-Palestinian content and reinforce censorship of activists denouncing crimes committed in Gaza.
This debate comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, in recent months, a vast digital initiative aimed at “restore the image of Israel” on social networks. This strategy, supported by coordinated campaigns and pro-Israeli influencers, seeks to counter the flow of international criticism linked to the genocide in Gaza and to strengthen the presence of the Israeli narrative online.
For many defenders of digital rights, this sale illustrates the growing control of political and economic interests over major communication platforms. They believe that a transfer of ownership to groups known for their proximity to the pro-Israeli lobby would risk worsening the marginalization of Palestinian voices already stifled on social networks. The Trump administration has not yet responded to these accusations. For his part, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that Beijing had agreed in principle to the transfer, which could be finalized in the coming weeks.
CAIR presents the sale as a threat to freedom of expression, while its critics accuse it of having ties to Islamist organizations and spreading anti-Israeli propaganda — accusations that the organization categorically rejects.
