Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said days before a nationwide ban was expected to go into effect on Sunday and TikTok was expected to go dark, calling federal officials and ordinary Americans “out of touch with reality.” “There is,” he accused.
Portnoy took aim at government leaders in a more than two-minute rant Thursday, accusing officials behind the ban of ruining the lives of people who make a living from video-sharing platforms. .
“If the U.S. government bans TikTok, it's further proof that they don't care about the American people at all. They have no idea what's going on.” Portnoy said in a video posted to X.
“They're disconnected from reality. They have no idea how many people, companies, creators, individuals, whatever you want to say, are making a living off of TikTok. So these people… “Why not just strip them of their livelihood overnight?” he continued.
“The only thing that comes to mind for me is that I'm worried that China will use disinformation and control the algorithms and make people see what they see,” Portnoy argued.
“Listen, if people are so stupid that they can't verify where they're getting their important information in the first place, why wouldn't the U.S. government spread disinformation? There's fake information everywhere you go.”
Portnoy's comments came hours before new reports emerged that Biden would not implement a law banning TikTok, leaving the decision to President-elect Trump.
Lawmakers and the Justice Department say TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, poses a national security threat and that content is compromised through recommendation algorithms, mass data collection such as location tracking, and other risks. It is claimed that there is a possibility of secretly operating the
TikTok denies the allegations and argues that a law passed by Congress in April that forces it to divest its platform from its Chinese parent company by January 19 violates the First Amendment. .
The company also claims that it could not have sold the app within 120 days of the bill.
“There's no way we can ruin so many jobs, livelihoods, careers, and advertising for fear of Chinese disinformation,” Portnoy said, adding that Barstool is “strong” on every platform. .
“Right now, I'm more worried about disinformation from the American government than from the Chinese government. Let's take it one thing at a time.”
TikTok reportedly plans to permanently shut down the app on Sunday if the ban goes into effect as expected. The roughly 170 million U.S. users who tried to access the platform were redirected to a website detailing the ban.
President-elect Donald Trump, who has previously been a vocal critic of TikTok and initially led efforts to block the app, has recently opposed a ban and is considering options to “save” the platform. said.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to attend President Trump's inauguration on Monday.
Since then, disgruntled “TikTok refugees” have flocked to China-based alternative app Red Note, which is known in China as “Xiaohongshu” (meaning “little red book” in Mandarin). known.
Experts have warned that the platform poses even greater risks for users in the United States.
