Trump Reverses TikTok Ban Stance, Accuses Biden Of Favoring Zuckerberg's Meta: 'Doing It To Help Facebook Friends Get Richer'

Former President Donald Trump has voiced opposition to a potential ban on TikTok, a move currently under consideration in Congress. Trump has attributed this move to President Joe Biden, despite his own previous attempts to ban the app during his term.

What Happened: Trump used his Truth Social platform on Monday to accuse Biden of being responsible for the potential TikTok ban. He claimed that Biden was assisting Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms Inc.’s social media website Facebook in gaining more power and possibly meddling in elections to the detriment of Republicans, reported The Washington Post.

Trump wrote on Truth Social, “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 Republican Party.”

Two days prior, the House passed legislation as part of a broad foreign aid package. This legislation would require TikTok’s parent company, based in China, to sell the app within a year or face a national ban. Biden has endorsed this package and previously stated he would sign an earlier version of the TikTok legislation passed by the House.

Trump, in 2020, issued an executive order to ban TikTok if its parent company did not sell it within 45 days. This order was later blocked in court. Recently, however, Trump has reversed his stance, arguing that a TikTok ban would only strengthen Facebook, which he has termed “an enemy of the people”.

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The White House has refuted allegations of working to shut down TikTok. “We do not want to ban apps like TikTok,” said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson. The aim, according to Patterson, is to ensure that TikTok is owned by an American company to protect sensitive personal data from going to China.

The legislation passed by the House gives TikTok’s owner up to 360 days to divest, indicating that any ban is unlikely to occur until after Election Day.

Why It Matters: Trump previously supported a ban on the ByteDance-owned TikTok. Trump had also argued then that a TikTok ban would significantly boost Meta’s business, a company he has previously accused of election fraud.

His change of heart has raised eyebrows, with some suggesting there could be a bigger reason for the former president’s reversed course. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to force TikTok parent ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a potential ban in the U.S. The bill now faces a vote in Senate and potential signing by President Biden if approved.

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