Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed his support for TikTok despite the potential for a U.S. ban if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not divest the app’s U.S. assets.
“I’m for TikTok because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek published on Tuesday. This marks a shift in stance for Trump, who previously labeled TikTok a threat, though he joined the platform last month. The app is used by 170 million Americans.
Trump’s stance on TikTok comes after he criticized Meta Platforms-owned Facebook and Instagram for suspending him for two years following the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot. In June, Trump declared he would never support a TikTok ban.
TikTok has not commented on Trump’s latest remarks. While serving as president, Trump attempted to ban TikTok and the Chinese-owned WeChat in 2020, but the courts blocked these efforts. In June 2021, President Joe Biden revoked a series of Trump-era executive orders aimed at banning WeChat and TikTok.
Trump owns a majority stake in Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates the rival social network Truth Social. Despite a market capitalization of $7 billion, Trump Media reports quarterly revenues of around $770,000, comparable to the earnings of two U.S. Starbucks locations.
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments regarding legal challenges to a new law mandating that ByteDance divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban. The outcome of this hearing could significantly impact TikTok’s future in the U.S., coinciding with the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
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