Then President-elect Donald Trump debuted his plan to neuter TikTok as a national security threat one day before his inauguration.
Trump made clear that he would take action to bring back TikTok and resolve the threat it poses to Americans and American national security in a Jan. 19 Truth Social post. Trump wrote, “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
TikTok is a threat to national security for a number of reasons, including because of TikTok’s connection to the communist Chinese government. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires the company to spy on users whenever the CCP asks. A company owned by three CCP entities owns a 1% stake in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Notably, Fox News China expert Gordon Chang told MRC Free Speech America in spring 2023: “The 2017 national intelligence law of China articles 7 and 14 require every Chinese entity to spy if demanded.”
Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes have both reported on the dangers of trusting TikTok with one’s payment information and other data. Forbes found that TikTok stores information such as social security numbers and taxpayer identification numbers on Chinese servers while The Journal discovered that TikTok tracked whether users looked at “gay content,” apparently ignoring concerns that the information could be used for blackmail purposes.
In his Jan. 19 post, Trump responded to legislation banning TikTok in the United States if ByteDance failed to sell the app to a company not controlled by the CCP. TikTok shut down in the United States ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline, before resuming operations following promises from Trump.
Trump, who also posted “SAVE TIKTOK” on Truth Social Jan. 19, explained further that he wanted the United States to own a 50 percent stake in TikTok. Trump emphasized the need to ensure that TikTok was safe for Americans and his willingness to be firm at the negotiating table. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to s[t]ay up,” Trump wrote. “Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions.”
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