Amid escalating scrutiny of TikTok due to recent legislative actions in Congress, former President Donald Trump has expressed his support for the application.
Trump voiced his stance on Truth Social, a conservative-leaning social network, stating: “Eliminating TikTok would only lead to Facebook and Zuckerschmuck doubling their business. I’m not in favor of Facebook, which compromised the integrity of the last election, gaining any advantage. They truly are the People’s adversary.”
This stance marks a significant shift for Trump, who, in August 2020, announced his intentions to ban the app and followed through with an executive order that threatened to prohibit TikTok in the U.S. unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold it within 45 days. However, this order faced legal challenges and was blocked by several federal judges, preventing the ban from taking effect.
The Current Situation with TikTok
On March 7, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously voted to push forward a bill requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok within 165 days.
The move stems from concerns over the security of American user data due to ByteDance’s Chinese ownership, leading to a ban on TikTok on government and state employee devices in 34 states.
Responding to the bill on March 5, a TikTok spokesperson criticized it as an effective ban on the app, arguing it infringes on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and threatens the livelihood of 5 million small businesses that depend on the platform for growth and job creation.
