On January 18th, Tik Tok was banned for a brief 12 hours in America before returning, the ban was postponed by President Trump. After 5 years of planning to ban tiktok, the U.S. government seems to have changed their opinion of the app and are attempting to save it.
Tiktok was banned due to its violation of the 2024 National Security Act signed by former president Biden, which aimed to protect Americans from foreign adversaries. Due to Tiktok being owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, this bill outlawed the app unless it was sold to an American company. Tiktok refused to sell out which led to the ban being placed into effect. “We have given TikTok a clear choice. Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP, and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences,” stated republican party representative, Cathy McMorris Rodgers after the bill was originally passed in March of last year.
On President Trump’s first day of office he signed an executive order that temporarily lifted the ban. The order stops the U.S. attorney general from enforcing the law for 75 days to provide more time for his administration to strike a deal with TikTok and ByteDance. “TikTok itself is a fantastic platform. We’re going to find a way to preserve it but protect people’s data,” stated Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz.
However, Trump’s stance has clearly changed, during his first presidency he was originally the one to bring up the ban of tik tok and show suspicion concerning its Chinese ownership. He believed allowing China to save data on users was a national security threat and could potentially lead to espionage. “As far as Tik Tok is concerned, we’re banning it,” stated Trump in July of 2020. A month later Trump tried to issue an executive order which would ban the use of Tik Tok but was blocked by federal judges.
Trump’s current objective is to get Tik Tok to sell itself to one of the companies who have reached out to him. He’s been in connection with billionaires like Elon Musk and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary who have shown their interest in buying out TikTok. His plan is for half of it to be owned by an American company so that it somewhat follows the law and might be able to still operate in the states. “What I’m thinking of saying to someone is buy it and give half to the US, half, and we’ll give you a permit,” said Trump.
