A second Trump administration is expected to block a ban on TikTok, and may reverse the first administration's policy of calling for the sale of TikTok
The Washington Post reported that Donald Trump, who wins the 2024 US presidential election, is likely to block the 'TikTok Ban Act' that would order the sale of TikTok after taking office. Trump pushed for a ban on TikTok during his first administration from 2017 to 2020, but is expected to reverse that policy during his second administration.
Donald Trump expected to try to halt TikTok ban, allies say - The Washington Post
Stopping the TikTok ban is reportedly a Trump priority - 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2024/11/12/stopping-the-tiktok-ban-is-reportedly-a-trump-priority/
In April 2024, current President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which requires TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok within nine months. This means that if TikTok cannot find a new owner other than a Chinese company by January 2025, it will lose access to American users .
The move comes amid national security concerns that TikTok, run by the Chinese company ByteDance, is collecting huge amounts of Americans' data and transmitting it to the Chinese government, as well as concerns about the outsized influence TikTok has over young Americans through its recommendation system and feeds.
The move to regulate TikTok did not begin under the Biden administration, but in 2020, during the first Trump administration, a bipartisan group warned that TikTok had privacy concerns. In response, then-President Trump demanded that TikTok be sold to a US company.
President Trump demands TikTok 'sell to an American company by September 15, 2020', Microsoft offers to buy - GIGAZINE
This policy of regulating TikTok was also inherited by Biden, who took office as president in 2021. However, when Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, he said in March, 'Facebook would be bigger without TikTok,' and 'I'm not interested in doubling the size of Facebook. If we ban TikTok, other social media sites, especially Facebook, would benefit greatly. I think Facebook is very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,' and came to support TikTok, taking the position that a competitor to Facebook is necessary.
Trump opened a TikTok account in June and had more than 14 million followers by the time he declared victory. In September, he posted a video on his social media account, Truth Social, saying, 'If you want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump. He's trying to shut it down , but I'm now a big star on TikTok.'
By Gage Skidmore
Several people familiar with the matter, including Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump's campaign manager in the 2016 presidential election and served as a presidential adviser during the first Trump administration, told The Washington Post that Trump will likely move to block the U.S. government's ban on TikTok.
'Trump values TikTok's reach and influence, and has used it skillfully to win, along with podcasts and new media outlets,' Conway said. 'There are plenty of ways to hold China accountable beyond alienating TikTok's 180 million monthly American users. Trump recognized early on that the Democratic Party is the party of inhumane, anti-personal choices, like banning gasoline-powered cars, menthol cigarettes, vaping and TikTok.'
If Trump were to move to block the ban on TikTok, it would be a major change in policy from his first administration. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has warned about the dangers of TikTok, and Senator Marco Rubio, who is expected to be nominated as Secretary of State in the second Trump administration, is also a hardliner against China who has staunchly called for a ban on TikTok. Therefore, depending on Trump's actions, it is possible that differences of opinion regarding TikTok may arise within the administration.
It has also been reported that of the 1,089 employees who were hired and issued work visas in the United States by TikTok and its operating company ByteDance between October 2022 and September 2023, 669 were from China.
TikTok and its owner ramped up their hiring from China, even as Congress raised national security concerns : r/technology
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1gpq5xw/tiktok_and_its_owner_ramped_up_their_hiring_from/
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