As the Senate considers banning TikTok, the real battle could be between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
President Trump does not support a House bill that would ban the TikTok platform unless it is sold to a company with no ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Although the position is a departure from the former president, his rationale spotlights what many see as a years-long effort by Facebook’s parent company Meta to undermine TikTok.
President Trump said U.S. lawmakers shouldn’t ban the ByteDance-owned platform just because it benefits Facebook.
“I find that Facebook is very dishonest. And if you ban or take away TikTok, what happens is… those people are going to get on Facebook. And I “In my opinion, Facebook is much worse than TikTok,” President Trump told Fox News host Howard Kurtz last month.
President Trump warns lawmakers that if they ban TikTok, users will flock to Facebook, the ‘worst’ platform
As the Senate considers banning TikTok, the real battle could be between Republican candidate Donald and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Getty Images)
John McEntee, a conservative TikTok influencer with more than 2.2 million followers who previously served in the Trump administration, has been banned from TikTok because he feels the former president’s criticisms are “well-spoken.” He feels that doing so will only further strengthen Zuckerberg’s power.
“TikTok has been cutting into Facebook and Google’s profits and significantly reducing their market share for years. There’s nothing big tech companies want more than to beat out their biggest competitors,” McEntee said. told FOX News Digital.
“If Republicans are serious about confronting Big Tech, why are they doing exactly what Mark Zuckerberg wants?” in the rhetoric he often uses to make his point in a viral video. Are you doing that?” he asked.
In fact, banning TikTok appears to be exactly what Zuckerberg wants.
as the wall street journal Written in 2020, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long implemented a “copy, buy, and kill” strategy to beat rival platforms. A four-year-old article published as Meta geared up to launch Instagram Reels noted that the product was designed to “directly compete with TikTok.”
Instagram Reels’ success has not slowed down TikTok, which remains the social media platform of choice for most young people.
Mr. Zuckerberg can now speak Chinese. reportedly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to give the unborn child a Chinese honorary name in 2015, but he has been working for years to instill ties with the Chinese government. But Zuckerberg’s message on China changed, and as TikTok exploded in popularity, the Facebook founder began criticizing the Chinese government.
“China has built its own internet, focused on completely different values, and is now exporting its vision of the internet to other countries. Until recently, the internet in almost every country other than China was “The American platform has been defined by the values of freedom of expression, and we will ensure that those values prevail,” Zuckerberg said in a 2019 speech at Georgetown University. he said before promoting and bashing TikTok.
“We are starting to see this on social media. Our services like WhatsApp are used by protesters and activists all over the world due to their strong encryption and privacy protections, but “TikTok, a rapidly growing Chinese app in the United States, has also been censored,” he continued. “Is this the internet we want?”
House passes bill that could ban TikTok in the US
Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring TikTok to break away from the Chinese Communist Party’s control or face a ban in the United States. (Fox News Digital)
The Georgetown speech is seen as a key moment as Zuckerberg publicly turned to attack TikTok and China.The Washington Post also published this complete transcription of his statement. The following year, another Wall Street Journal report said Zuckerberg’s speech “fueled Washington’s fears about TikTok.”
Zuckerberg met with several members of Congress to promote the idea that TikTok “represents a risk to American values and technological supremacy,” the WSJ reported, and during a meeting in the Oval Office, Zuckerberg said at the time: “The rise of Chinese internet companies threatens American business,” he reportedly told President Trump.
In 2020, Facebook was also a “key and key driver” in helping launch American Edge, a political pro-tech advocacy group, the Washington Post reported. Around this time, Facebook’s influence appeared to be paying off, with President Trump vowing to sign an executive order banning TikTok in 2020 before it was blocked by two federal judges. This came as concerns about TikTok’s privacy and data issues were firmly entrenched in the country’s zeitgeist.
Since then, Meta has famously suspended President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following the events of January 6, angering conservatives. That was after it restricted News Feed articles related to the New York Post’s bombshell report on Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop.
Mr. McEntee believes that events since Mr. Zuckerberg’s Georgetown speech prove that his statements were insincere.
“Mr. Zuckerberg censored legitimate news stories during the 2020 election and then banned the sitting U.S. president from the platform. So it’s certainly true that he called TikTok a ‘risk to American values.’ It seems a little disingenuous to talk about it,” McEntee said.
By 2022, the Washington Post reported that “Facebook was secretly funding small grassroots groups to fight battles in Washington,” and that American Edge was “surreptitiously funding rivals over Chinese ownership.” “They are actively attacking TikTok.”
Another Washington Post article from 2022 reported that Mehta paid Republican consulting firm Target Victory to “turn the public against TikTok.”
Former President Trump opposes Congressional effort to ban TikTok in US (St. Petersburg)
President Trump recently told Truth Social, “If we take out TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck’s business will double. We don’t want Facebook to do better because they rigged the last election. He is an enemy of the true people!” he posted.
Sean Maike, a Florida-based entrepreneur who is a vocal supporter of President Trump and host of the podcast “Close & Conquer,” said TikTok influencers are They don’t want to run into a Zuckerberg-owned platform.
”[Senate] We can’t give Mr. Zuckerberg that kind of power, especially before an election, and free speech is essential on TikTok and other platforms,” Maike told Fox News Digital.
Mehta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok’s critics have long called it a national security threat. They cite concerns about the ability of the Chinese government to use its power over ByteDance to access sensitive user data, even within the United States, which the company denies.
China hawks also warn that the app is gaining popularity among young Americans and is giving the ruling Chinese Communist Party a platform for a massive influence campaign. At the same time, other members of parliament Be wary of pushing In its bid to rein in TikTok, it cites First Amendment concerns and potential harm to small businesses that rely on it.
Supporters of the bill, including former California Democratic Party Speaker Nancy Pelosi, say the bill is not intended to ban TikTok, but rather to reduce the threat TikTok poses due to its relationship with China. I have repeatedly insisted.
Citizens United President David Bossie, who served as an advisor to President Trump, believes TikTok is “extremely dangerous” to Americans because the Chinese Communist Party has access to data and information. But he feels a solution to help Mehta would “also benefit the left,” as it would give Zuckerberg even more power and influence.
“Mr. Zuckerberg is much more interested in cornering the market with data than he is in taking a position that benefits the United States. He says he wants to ban TikTok just for PR purposes,” Bossie said on FOX. He told News Digital.
Kevin O’Leary proposes to buy TikTok and turn it into a ‘new American company’ if ban goes ahead
The bill, spearheaded by House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, would block TikTok in the U.S. if parent company ByteDance does not withdraw from the service within 165 days of its passage. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who chairs the China Subcommittee, announced last month that he would not seek re-election and would resign early from his House seat on April 19. The move infuriated Republicans because he had no plan. Surrender the seat early enough to trigger a special election.
Gallagher, who has long been notoriously tough on TikTok, is reported to be joining data analytics company Palantir when he leaves the House of Commons. Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, a longtime Meta board member.
Trump also took to Truth Social to share his thoughts on Gallagher.
“Never forget our cowards and weaklings! What a shame,” Trump wrote in the caption of an article about Gallagher’s plans to retire early.
Congressman Gallagher’s office declined to comment.
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Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
