Donald Trump wanted to ban TikTok within the United States when he was president. However, it did not do so and, in fact, did not agree with the new law that forced ByteDance to sell the American part of the platform to continue operating within its borders. Now that Trump has been re-elected in the last presidential elections, one of his priorities is to stop the end of the app in the country.
The US House of Representatives and Joe Biden voted to ban TikTok from their territory at the beginning of the year. According to the law that had been approved, the group that owns the social network, ByteDance, had to sell the division in the US if they did not want to disappear. Although TikTok denounced the regulation, accusing it of being “unconstitutional”, everything remains on track for its services to be banned in early 2025.
Trump’s return to the White House to begin his term will take place in January 2025. Therefore, there will still be time to prevent TikTok from disappearing from the US. According to an article in The Washington Post, It is something that is among your plans.
Some “people familiar” with the matter who have spoken to The Washington Post point out that the president-elect will keep his promise during the election campaign. Trump has stressed in recent months that he would save TikTok if he won the election and that will be the case.
Why does the US want to ban TikTok?
The scuffles between the United States and ByteDance are not new. They have been happening for years and, at the time, Trump considered banning the social video network in the North American country. However, the situation worsened when the Biden Government put TikTok on the ropes.
With a new law that was passed in early 2024, the US forced ByteDance to find a new owner who was not in China. The reason? American politicians do not trust that the app does not sell user data to the Chinese government. If they did not sell the American part, they threatened to deny them access within their borders.
«I am in favor of TikTok because competition is needed. If you don’t have TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are still there,” Trump commented in an interview with Bloomberg. The businessman, who will be president of the United States again in a few months, considers Meta apps “enemies of the people”, which is why he is against the brand establishing itself as a leader in the sector.
In addition, the president-elect explained that blocking the social network could “drive children crazy.” This contradicts the speech he gave before his term ended in 2020.
What did Donald Trump think of TikTok years ago?
When Trump was president from 2017 to 2021, the closure of TikTok in the US was considered. After banning Huawei within its borders, its government considered doing the same with the Chinese social network. At the time, the decision was also due to concerns that the app would be used by the Chinese secret services.
TikTok denied that it gave information to the Chinese Government. The head of the application, Kevin Mayer, noted that they did not accept political advertising and that their only goal was to “remain a dynamic platform for everyone to enjoy” and that they were not “the enemy.”
The Trump Administration’s plan was not carried out, since its term ended shortly after, in January 2021. Therefore, we do not know if it would have been carried out. What is clear is that, four years later, Donald Trump’s opinion has changed. Now, their goal is to stop Joe Biden’s law and keep TikTok available in the US.
