Trump argues that a TikTok ban would only benefit ‘enemy of the people’ Facebook.
A congressional bill that requires TikTok’s parent company to sell the app or face having it banned in the US has drawn criticism from former US President Donald Trump.
During his time in the White House in 2020, Mr. Trump tried to outlaw TikTok, however he now says that the proposal to ban TikTok would give Facebook’s owner, Meta, unfair advantages.
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Mr Trump told NBC on Monday.
Mr Trump said in his NBC interview that he agreed with those who see TikTok as a national security threat, but argued that Facebook was also a threat to the US government.
“I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,” Mr Trump added.
Asked about TikTok’s security, the Republican presidential candidate said “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the social media platform.
“There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Mr Trump added.
The US intelligence community has warned that the Chinese government is using TikTok in attempts to sow doubt about US leadership and undermine democracy.
Legislators in the US are discussing a bill that would compel ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the app by September 30.
The bipartisan bill passed a congressional committee last week by a vote of 50-0.
The Senate must also vote to approve the bill before it could be signed into law.
If the bill passes, President Joe Biden has stated he will sign it.
In an annual report on threats to US security, released on Monday, the Office of the Director of National intelligence wrote that TikTok accounts from the Chinese government’s propaganda arm “reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022”.
Source; BBC
