Donald Trump is Against TikTok Ban Since He Believes It Would Benefit Facebook and ‘Zuckerschmuck'

In a Thursday night social media post that also criticized Facebook, former President Donald Trump spoke out in favor of TikTok in the face of congressional legislation calling for Chinese divestment from the app. Trump has voiced opposition to a national ban on TikTok, after the unanimous decision of a major House committee in support of bipartisan legislation compelling the Chinese parent company of the app, ByteDance, to surrender control of the platform. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the law, according to the White House, despite criticism from TikTok users over the bill's potential shutdown.

As reported by Variety, Trump wrote on Truth Social, "If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" On January 7, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg removed Trump from Facebook and Instagram. This came one day after supporters of the former president stormed the US Capitol to prevent Joe Biden's 2020 election victory from being certified. Months after the Meta CEO's decision, As per the Washington Examiner, Trump expressed his ire at the White House by making a statement in which he said, "Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!"

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed measures aimed at reining down TikTok on Thursday by a vote of 50-0. Reps. As reported by CNN, Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) proposed the measure earlier this week. It would give ByteDance, the Chinese parent firm of the well-known video-sharing app, 165 days to sell TikTok or risk having it removed from app stores run by Apple, Google, and other companies. Similar limitations are included in the law for any software that is purportedly under the authority of hostile foreign nations like China, Iran, Russia, or North Korea. Additionally, it establishes a procedure for Biden, or any other president in the future, to choose which applications should be prohibited under the law.

TikTok is considered a danger to national security because ByteDance might be forced to turn over US users' data to the Chinese government. Politicians are concerned that the data may be used to pinpoint intelligence targets or to support propaganda or misinformation efforts. Through a series of executive orders, Trump once attempted to compel ByteDance to sell TikTok and to prevent the site from being hosted by app stores. These initiatives failed due to legal obstacles, but Trump was largely responsible for bringing TikTok into the spotlight in the first place by connecting it to a larger anti-China agenda that included a trade war and provocative language that stoked concerns about anti-Asian prejudice. At the time, there were significant First Amendment concerns about Trump's attempts to outlaw TikTok. The legislators who drafted the measure this week claim to have put a lot of effort into resolving such issues.