Former President Donald Trump has reversed his position on banning the popular social media app TikTok warning young Americans that President Joe Biden’s efforts to do so are a ploy to benefit Facebook.
During his presidency Trump pushed for a ban on TikTok citing security concerns related to its Chinese ownership. However as his 2024 presidential opponent pursues a similar path Trump has accused Biden of using the ban to help Facebook gain dominance and interfere with the upcoming election.
The proposed ban on TikTok was included in a controversial foreign aid package that the House of Representatives approved over the weekend. The bill which is expected to pass in the Senate this week would require TikTok to find a new parent company and divest from its current owner the Beijing-based tech company ByteDance.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on April 22 Trump addressed his message “especially [to] the young people” and referred to Biden as “Crooked Joe Biden.” He claimed that the plan would lead “Facebook [to] become richer and more dominant” and enable Meta to “fight” the GOP “perhaps illegally.”
Trump accused the scheme of being “election interference” and urged “young people” and all voters to “remember this on November 5th Election Day.” He concluded his post by declaring that Biden “is destroying our country.”
Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok. He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 22, 2024
According to RedState the pending policy would force TikTok to sell to a different parent company but would not explicitly ban the app from the United States. However the Chinese government has stated that it will not allow ByteDance to sell the app.
If TikTok fails to divest from the Chinese company the app will be blocked in the United States. In addition to national security concerns some legislators have called for a ban on the app due to its negative impact on young people with notorious “TikTok challenges” leading to injuries and deaths.
