Former President Donald Trump wants to protect TikTok as legislators consider passing a bill that critics argue could result in the social media platform being banned in the United States.
U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill this week aimed at addressing the platform's ownership, as cybersecurity experts have raised security concerns about its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance's ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Republican and Democratic members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said the bill would "incentivize divestment of TikTok" by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to similarly target social media companies controlled by a "foreign adversary." TikTok, however, argued that the bill would amount to a ban.
Trump, who remains the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and is the de facto leader of the GOP, wrote that he would not support a ban on TikTok in a post to Truth Social on Thursday night.
"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!" Trump wrote.
His comments mark a shift in his position on the matter since his tenure in the White House. In August 2020, Trump issued an executive order ordering ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets and destroy all data within 90 days.
"There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd. ... through acquiring all interests in musical.ly ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," Trump wrote in the order.
Newsweek reached out to Trump, TikTok and Meta for comment via email.
The bill is being led by Representatives Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat. They serve as the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
They wrote in a press release that their bill would give ByteDance a "window of time to divest" and that TikTok would not be excluded "if it completes a qualified divestment."
"Our bipartisan legislation would protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps to ensure that Americans are protected from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them," Krishnamoorthi said.
On Thursday, TikTok urged its users to call members of Congress to complain about the bill, giving them a notification that reads: "Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok. Speak up now—before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression."
Gallagher responded to the calls by saying that the app's characterization of the bill as an "outright ban" is an "outright lie" in remarks to reporters, Axios reported.
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Andrew Stanton is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in Maine. His role is reporting on U.S. politics and social issues. ... Read more
