OAN’s Abril Elfi
2:40 PM – Monday, March 11, 2024
Former President Donald Trump expressed that even though he believes TikTok is a national security threat, banning the app could empower Meta (Facebook).
On Monday, the 45th president acknowledged that a TikTok ban would bring more online users to Meta, which he said is the “enemy of the people,” due to its over-policing of free speech and heavy censorship.
“I do believe that,” Trump said. “I do believe it and we very much have to go into privacy and make sure that we are protecting the American people’s privacy and data rights,” the presumptive Republican nominee added. “But, you know, we also have that problem with other — you have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too.”
Trump continued, saying that banning TikTok would be a “tough decision to make,” and that the absence of the popular social media app could help Mark Zuckerberg’s website become more popular.
“Frankly 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,” he said. “There are a lot of users, that is, you know a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like, is without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger—and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”
“If you ban TikTok, Facebook and others, but mostly Facebook, [it] will be a big beneficiary,” he added, arguing Facebook has been “very bad for the country” especially in terms of elections.
Trump spoke as the House is preparing to take up the legislation this week that could potentially ban companies from offering TikTok web hosting in the U.S. or those who make it available on their app stores, unless parent company ByteDance divests itself within 180 days.
In response to ongoing concerns regarding how TikTok gathers user data from United States citizens, President Biden has previously stated that he would sign a bill banning the app if it reached his desk and worries persisted.
The 45th president similarly asserted on Monday that he could have banned TikTok during his first term, but that he ultimately left it up to Congress.
“I could have banned TikTok. I had it banned just about, I could’ve gotten it done. But, you know, I said ‘I’ll leave it up to you, I didn’t push them too hard, because let them do their own research and development, and they decided not to do it,” Trump said.
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