On the afternoon of 19 January, the popular social media platform TikTok services in the United States were restored after a brief ban that ended up lasting all of 14 hours. The ban, which went into effect around 10:30 PM EST on the night of 18 January, was reversed just over half a day later, nearly 24 hours before Trump’s inauguration. While Trump himself went on a crusade against TikTok during his first term, he warmed to the platform’s continuation during his most recent presidential campaign, arguing that a ban of the app would empower one of its arch-rivals, Facebook, which he called at the time an “enemy of the people”, a frequent theme of Trumpian attacks.
Trump is not the only Republican to have flip-flopped greatly on this matter, as many others have openly grappled with the TikTok issue recently: in April 2024, Trump’s now-nominee for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, declared that the platform had “extended the Chinese Communist Party’s power and influence into our nation, right under our noses”, however when asked recently, he stated that “If I’m confirmed as secretary of State (which Rubio now has been), I’ll work for the president”; Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative advocacy organization ‘Turning Point USA’ has advocated for the banning of TikTok on at least 9 different occasions, yet following his party’s reversal, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that “Trump is saving TikTok. Pay attention, Gen Z”, seeming to support the change in course.
Other elected Republicans, however, have been stauncher in their views, including Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who stated that “Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law (…)”. Cotton parroted the oft-debunked myth that TikTok is controlled or owned by the Chinese Communist Party, which dates back in part to a January 2024 Senate hearing. The Senator repeatedly cast aspersions on the citizenship status, passport ownership, and political affiliations of TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, who is Singaporean.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, have a history of confrontation, dating back to a Senate Hearing in which the former repeatedly insinuated that the latter had ties to China and its ruling Communist Party, despite Chew being a Singaporean National (image from NBC News)
Indeed, as recently promised, one of Trump’s sprawling slew of day-one executive orders included an action to delay the ban of TikTok by 75 days, until 5 April, which states that the Administration is to “consult with (…) advisors, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans”. Legal experts have described this de facto stay of execution as a “gray area”, as there is currently little to no indication of what will take place after the 75 days. The sale of TikTok itself has been repeatedly floated, with the computer software company Oracle alleged to be in pole position for the application’s acquisition.
President Donald Trump signed into law a flurry of executive orders on his first day back in office, one of which delayed the ban of TikTok by 75 days (image from BBC News)
Featured image: TikTok’s services in the United States went dark on 19 January, yet were restored the following day (image from Al-Jazeera)
