Donald Trump appears to come to TikTok’s defense as the social media platform faces potential ban Congress published a series of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Thursday evening.It should be noted that the platform has experienced Widespread power outage The former president attempted to live-tweet President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
“If we get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, which cheated in the last election, to do better. They are the true enemy of the people!” Trump wrote Thursday night.
It’s unclear why Trump called Facebook “the enemy of the people,” a comment he usually reserves for mainstream media outlets other than Fox News.Trump appears to have never before used Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s nickname “Zuckerschmuck,” which, based on a simple Google search, appears to be a reference to a company famous for diabetes.
Trump’s opposition to a TikTok ban would be a reversal of policy by the former president, who signed an executive order in the summer of 2020 forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to completely divest the social media site or face U.S. territory ban.
Trump’s executive orderThe lawsuit, which had been stalled in federal court but was overturned after Biden took office in 2021, called TikTok’s existence a “national emergency” in the United States that could threaten U.S. security and economy.
“The mobile app may also be used in disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 novel coronavirus,” reads a line in Trump’s executive order The words are especially ironic because Trump has embraced many such conspiracy theories.
The executive order also alleges that the Chinese Communist Party censors TikTok, particularly around “protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.” Because who doesn’t love “Muslim minorities” more than Trump? correct?
Why does Trump want to change his attitude towards TikTok? Who knows why Trump did this? Maybe he’s calculating that this will help his own social media platform in some way.Maybe because Trump reportedly saw at least $5.5 million flowing into his businesses from China when he was president. Does this have anything to do with Republican megadonor Jeff Yass? ByteDance’s huge investmentReportedly had a recent phone call with Trump Politico?
Better yet, maybe Trump wants to delay the ban until his hypothetical return to office, a tactic he has employed to derail a bipartisan immigration reform deal because he wants to movement on this issue “Broken Borders.” As far as we know, it really can be anything.
But Congress is moving forward on a potential ban on TikTok, with a bipartisan bill expected to come before the House of Representatives for a vote soon. The bill passed the House committee with a unanimous vote of 50-0. Like Trump’s original executive order, the bill would force ByteDance to sell the platform, allowing Congress to ban the site entirely if the company refuses.
The bill mobilizes some of TikTok’s roughly 150 million U.S. users, and congressional offices were reportedly flooded with calls Thursday pleading with lawmakers not to ban the app. On Thursday, TikTok even issued a warning to U.S. users about a possible ban, a move that alarmed politicians. very angry.
President Biden comes out in support of congressional efforts to defund ByteDance, while the White House claims the president is simply killing Trump’s executive order to go his own way security clearance when it was tied up in federal court. But it will be interesting to see whether the court agrees that Congress has the authority to ban TikTok, a move the company says conflicts with Americans’ right to free speech.
“This legislation would trample on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of the platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” a TikTok spokesperson told Gizmodo. Thursday.
A House vote has yet to be scheduled, but it looks like we may soon know whether TikTok has a future in the United States. Incredibly, Trump wants to allow TikTok to continue operating as usual. At least until now.