Former President Donald Trump on Thursday voiced opposition to a ban on TikTok being considered by Congress, arguing that it would help Facebook, which he called “the real enemy of the people.”
“If you eliminate TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump, 77, said. Claimed in a Truth Social postapparently referring to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“We want Facebook, which cheated in the last election, to do better. They are the true enemy of the people!” he added.
Zuckerberg posted a video on Trump’s Facebook page on January 7, 2021, a day after the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. Access from Instagram has been banned.
President Trump was outraged by Mehta’s decision and released a statement several months later saying, “Next time I come to the White House, per his wishes, I will no longer have dinner with Mark and his wife Mark Zuckerberg.” Stated. It all comes down to business!
Mr. Mehta reinstated Mr. Trump last year.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill aimed at cracking down on TikTok on a 50-0 vote Thursday.
The bill, introduced earlier this week by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthy (D-Ill.), would require the popular video-sharing app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok. The agreement gives the company 165 days to sell or face a sale. It will be banned from app stores operated by Apple, Google, etc.
The bill has the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who said he intends to sign the bill into law once it reaches his desk.
In December 2022, Biden announced a “TikTok ban on government devices” banning the app from federal government devices and systems amid concerns that ByteDance could allow the Chinese Communist Party to access user data. signed into law.
ByteDance denies sharing user data with CCPs, but call for concern “False alarm.”
“This bill has a predetermined outcome: a total ban on TikTok in the United States,” the company said after Thursday’s vote. “The government is trying to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.”
President Trump has previously supported banning TikTok in the United States, going so far as to sign an executive order in August 2020 giving ByteDance a 45-day moratorium on selling the social media platform.
Trump’s order was blocked in court, and Biden rescinded the ban upon taking office and instead directed the Commerce Department to determine whether TikTok posed a national security threat.
The newspaper reported Thursday that Jeff Yass, a billionaire hedge fund manager and major Republican donor, personally called House Republicans to urge them to block a bill that would ban the app. Reported.
Yas’s fund owns $33 billion in ByteDance stock.
A spokesman for Mr. Yass denied that he had called Republican lawmakers.
