Donald Trump has long been against the social media platform TikTok. However, in a stunning twist of events, he started opposing a proposed TikTok ban, leaving many to wonder where exactly he stands on the issue and what’s behind the sudden change of heart.
As reported by CBS News, Trump recently reversed his opposition to TikTok, as he’s found an even bigger target: Facebook. As Trump said on CNBC’s Squawk Box, “There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you’re going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”
So surprise, surprise, Trump has ulterior motives for the sudden change. He’s looking to curtail a Facebook monopoly, given that Trump was banned from the platform for more than two years back in 2021. Trump doesn’t understand (or more likely, doesn’t care) that social media platforms have banned him for very good, anti-hate reasons, he just wants to punish the companies that booted him. Then again, when will fascists ever learn?
ByteDance, the Chinese company that’s behind the social media platform TikTok, is currently under fire from the House of Representatives. The House is trying to pass legislation that would pretty much mandate a sale of TikTok in just half a year. If ByteDance should refuse to do this, TikTok would then be banned from every app store and app website in the United States.
Beyond his ban, the reason why Trump is anti-Facebook likely has to do with how both Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan donated a staggering $400 million to mail-in drop boxes, ballot drop boxes, anti-voter suppression information, and so on. This was done during the height of COVID-19, in which baseless accusations of voter fraud were rampant among the Republican base.
Funny enough, Trump himself said that he wants young people to continue using TikTok. “There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,” he said. “Young kids on TikTok will go crazy without it.” This is a huge flip from his original position back in 2020, when he signed an executive order to ban TikTok, as reported by NPR.
Regardless of what Trump claims to believe now, none of it can be held in good faith. Once a grifter always a grifter.
(featured image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
