If we go back to when Donald Trump was in office the first time, Trump has suggested banning TikTok from operating in the United States.
Democrats literally laughed at Trump, but then a bipartisan effort was made to push through legislation that would ban the company unless it was sold to an operator in the United States.
That legislation passed and is set to go into effect on the day before Trump’s inauguration, but Trump may try to save the platform.
Hold Off
Biden does have the option of extending the deadline for the sale before the platform would be banned.
Economically, this would be a disaster for social media influencers in this country, with tens of thousands of people literally making their living off TikTok.
Trump was all for banning TikTok, as were several members of his administration, most notably Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who will be Donald Trump’s Secretary of State.
On banning TikTok, Rubio stated, “TikTok extended the Chinese Communist Party’s power and influence into our own nation, right under our noses … this new law forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok is a huge step toward confronting Beijing’s malign influence.”
Trump is now reversing his position, however, believing that there are better ways to solve the issues.
I am sure that comes as a relief to the more than 180 million users here in the United States, which is about half the population of the country.
Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway explained that there are “many ways to hold China to account outside alienating 180 million U.S. users each month.”
Trump spent a lot of time with podcasters and influencers during his campaign, and my guess is that they all got in his ear about this.
It will be curious to see if Biden allows the ban to play out or if he offers an extension to put this on Trump’s plate after he takes office.
