As TikTok stares down an impending federal ban, Donald Trump’s win within the presidential election might be a lifeline.
It’s a plot twist for the embattled, Chinese language-owned social media firm. Throughout Trump’s final presidency, the president-elect had been the one to initiate the calls to ban TikTok, which solely petered out as a result of he didn’t win his first try at re-election in 2020. However throughout his 2024 marketing campaign, Trump took a distinct strategy. He wrote in all-caps on his platform Fact Social, “For all of those who need to save Tik Tok in America, vote Trump!”
President Biden signed off on a invoice in April that offers ByteDance, the Chinese language dad or mum firm to TikTok, 9 months to promote the platform. If ByteDance fails to finish a sale — which is a likely outcome — it is going to be banned on January 19, 2025, the day earlier than Trump’s inauguration. Nevertheless, ByteDance has the choice of pursuing a 90-day extension, which might put the ball in Trump’s courtroom.
Trump’s reasoning for his assist of a TikTok ban in 2020 echoes the present bipartisan sentiment amongst legislators who pushed for this laws. On the time, Trump raised concerns concerning the Chinese language Communist Get together probably getting access to Individuals’ information (whereas there has not been public proof of the CCP accessing American TikTok customers’ information, there was proof that ByteDance accessed TikTok consumer information). Now, the president-elect seems extra involved with how a TikTok ban would profit Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.
“With out TikTok, you can also make Fb larger, and I think about Fb to be an enemy of the folks,” Trump told CNBC in March.
He made related feedback on Fact Social, claiming that he doesn’t desire a TikTok ban to end in Meta’s enterprise progress, as a result of he believes Fb is “a real enemy of the folks.”
Another excuse for Trump’s modified view on TikTok might be his relationship with Jeff Yass, a billionaire GOP donor and co-founder of the buying and selling agency Susquehanna Worldwide Group. Yass and his spouse, Janine, donated over $96 million to right-leaning PACs throughout this election cycle — and Yass additionally occurs to personal 7% of ByteDance.
Although Trump’s win may also be a victory for TikTok, politicians’ marketing campaign guarantees don’t at all times come to fruition.
