In a recent development, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused US President Joe Biden of pushing for a ban on the popular social media app TikTok. Trump claimed that Biden would be responsible if a ban were imposed, urging voters to take notice of the situation.
The US House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation on Saturday with a 360-58 vote, giving TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, about nine months to divest its US operations or face a ban. The bill is now set to move to the Senate, with Biden indicating that he would sign it into law if it passes.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to criticize Biden, alleging that the President is pushing for the closure of TikTok to benefit his friends at Facebook. He urged younger voters, who form a significant portion of TikTok’s user base, to consider Biden’s stance on Election Day.
Interestingly, Trump himself had attempted to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat during his presidency in 2020 over national security concerns, but his efforts were thwarted by the courts.
TikTok has vehemently denied sharing US user data with the Chinese government and has argued that a ban would violate free speech rights under the First Amendment for its 170 million users in the US. The company has vowed to challenge the legislation in court once Biden signs it into law.
The White House clarified that they do not want to ban apps like TikTok but aim to ensure that the app is owned by an American company to safeguard sensitive personal data. Trump has suggested that curbing TikTok would benefit Meta Platforms’ Facebook, a platform he has criticized in the past.