Trump Blames Biden for Potential TikTok Ban, Urges Voters to Remember
Former President Donald Trump has accused President Joe Biden of pushing for a ban on the popular video-sharing app TikTok.
The House of Representatives recently passed bipartisan legislation that would require TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its US operations within nine months or face a ban. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and be signed into law by President Biden.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that Biden would be “responsible for banning TikTok.” He accused Biden of “pushing it to close” and doing it to “help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant.”
Trump urged younger voters – who make up a significant portion of TikTok’s user base – to consider Biden’s position on Election Day.
However, when he was president in 2020, Trump himself sought to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat over national security concerns but was blocked by the courts.
TikTok has argued that a ban would trample on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution for the 170 million users of its app in the country. The company has vowed to challenge the legislation in court.
A White House spokesperson said that the Biden administration does not want to ban TikTok but rather ensure that it is owned by an American company to protect sensitive personal data.
Under the legislation, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google, and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications once the divestment deadline had passed.
In February, Biden’s reelection campaign joined TikTok. Trump’s campaign has not.
