Trump won’t be banning Tiktok in the US, if there is a divestment or other sorts of legal structure change, as he indicated earlier this year. And he has set up an official account on TikTok.
Trump’s main argument is to create competition for Meta, which could be bad for the company (people’s time spent, ads dollar, and tech talents).
Back in 2021, Trump accounts were banned on Facebook and Instagram; the ban was later lifted in 2023 after 2 years, but with “new guardrails”.
Meta said to removed those restriction last week.
On the other side, besides the support for TikTok US, Republican is trying to acquire the stake in TikTok US. Steven Mnuchin is leading a potential buyer group. He served as US Treasury Secretary from 2017 to 2021 for Trump.
Liberty Strategic Capital, is led by Steven Mnuchin, and is invested by SoftBank, which holds a stake in ByteDance.
In short, Meta could be getting a permanent and potent/aggressive competitor in the US.
Earlier this year, Biden has signed a law that would ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year. The deadline would be January 19, 2025, 1 day before the next US presidential term.
Plus, read this..
Politics matters I guess.