Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump supports TikTok despite a potential ban if ByteDance fails to sell its U.S. assets
“I am in favor of TikTok because you require competition.” In an interview published on Tuesday, Trump stated to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, “If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram.”
Trump had previously referred to TikTok, utilized by 170 million Americans, as a threat; however, he joined the platform last month.
In the aftermath of the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021, Trump, who has criticized Meta Platforms-owned Facebook and Instagram for suspending him for two years, stated in a June interview that he would never support a TikTok ban: opens new tab.
TikTok declined to respond. In 2020, President Trump attempted to prohibit TikTok and WeChat, which a Chinese company owned, but the courts prevented him from doing so.
In June 2021, President Joe Biden rescinded a series of executive orders from the Trump administration that were intended to prohibit the use of WeChat and TikTok.
Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT.O), a social media company with a majority stake, maintains a rival network called Truth Social.
Despite having a quarterly revenue of approximately $770,000, Trump Media has a $7 billion market capitalization comparable to the aggregate income of two Starbucks stores in the United States.
In September, a U.S. appeals court will hear oral arguments regarding legal challenges to a new law that mandates that China-based ByteDance divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban.
The destiny of TikTok will be decided during the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election during the hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The law, which Biden signed on April 24, provides ByteDance with until January 19 to either sell TikTok or face a moratorium. The White House has expressed its desire to terminate Chinese-based ownership for national security reasons but has not imposed a moratorium on TikTok. In February, the Biden campaign integrated TikTok.
The measure was enacted by Congress in April, just weeks after it was introduced, by an overwhelming majority, prompted by concerns among U.S. lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app.