Posted on 03/11/2024 8:10:59 AM PDT by thegagline
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday raised concerns about efforts to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the U.S., saying it would only serve to empower Meta ’s Facebook platform.
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” ***
Acknowledging his concerns around national security and data privacy over TikTok, Trump said, “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the platform.
“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,” Trump said.
***
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has exploded in popularity over the last few years, becoming an international sensation with its short videos.
It has also led regulators to fear that the software’s Chinese ownership would mean that it could share private user data at the request of the Beijing government.
ByteDance, like other Chinese companies, would be forced to disclose such information if asked to do so, experts say. China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organizations and citizens to “support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work.”
In 2020, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to have TikTok removed from app stores in the U.S. due to these concerns. Trump subsequently ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok within 90 days. This effort, which at one point saw Microsoft put a bid in for TikTok’s U.S. business, also never came to fruition.
*** “If China wants anything from [TikTo], they will give it, so that’s a national security risk [that] goes up,” Trump acknowledged. “But when I look at it, I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size.”***
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Dept of Homeland Security: Only WE are allowed to control social media in the USA!
Anyone trying to stop Americans from communicating via social media is an enemy of the Constitution and the people.
As we are instructed by Dr. Sowell and Dr. Schueftan, there are no solutions; only compromises.
Trump Meets TikTok Investor, Suddenly Doesn’t Want to Ban It
One American who does not share this goal is Jeff Yass, a conservative hedge-fund manager who has a $33 billion stake in TikTok and has reportedly threatened to cut off funding to Republicans who support the divestment bill.
Last week, Yass visited Mar-a-Lago, where Trump praised him as “fantastic,” and media reports touted that Yass could potentially contribute generously to Trump’s campaign.
Trump says he and Club for Growth are ‘back in love’
During his speech on Friday evening, Trump noted that Republican mega-donor and Club for Growth benefactor Jeff Yass, in addition to McIntosh, had called him and asked him to speak at the retreat. Should Trump win over Yass — whom Trump described as “fantastic” — it would potentially be a major financial boost to his campaign.
Yass has in the past been a critic of Trump’s. In September 2022, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Yass in which he lamented that trying to dissuade Trump from running was difficult because the former president didn’t need donor support and that “the only thing you can appeal to is, ‘You’re gonna lose and be humiliated.’”
A billionaire megadonor is “bullying” members of Congress by threatening to stop funding them if they back a bill to order TikTok’s Chinese parent to sell the app, The Post has learned.
Hedge fund manager Jeff Yass is personally calling Republican members of the House to try to halt legislation which would force ByteDance to divest itself of the app, putting it in US hands instead.
His fund has a $33 billion stake in the Chinese company.
Yass coin.
Government is jealous that China can spy on tik tok users. That’s the fbi job!!
Meta stock tanked in the immediate aftermath of that comment. That’s nice.
TikTok is filled with conservative free speech that would get banned anywhere else, including at X.
It’s a superior product to X and to Instagram by far.
DC doesn’t control it and that drives them batty.
As far as they put my data at risk, this dire warning comes from people who are fine with my data going to Zuckerberg, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. The problem with TikTok is they don’t sell the data to the US government.
The more DC unifies in it’s hate for something, they more the opposite is true.
Even if the social media platform in question is owned and operated by the Communist Party of China, through a front company [ByteDance], for the purpose of espionage and economic and psychological warfare against the U.S.?
Great post! Thank you. Follow the money.
Fixed.
Former ByteDance executive says Chinese Communist Party tracked Hong Kong protesters via data
TikTok told to break with China’s Communist Party or lose access to US users
Ex-ByteDance exec claims CCP "maintained" access to U.S. data
You don’t know what you are talking about. Simp for DC all you want. It’s filled with the best pro-Trump content anywhere and the most conservative content. That pro-Trump content must be the problem for you.
You must be very simple minded to suddenly think that Repubs and Dems suddenly cared about America jointly. They are all willing tools of the intelligence community and FBI and rake in massive donations from US big tech and Meta.
You are easily duped.
I’m convinced this d-bag is a paid DHS troll.
I wonder that also... I just assume there are a lot of them here.
CCP TikTok GOOD
American X bad.
Amazing how Freepers flip so quickly now supporting the Chinese Communist Party!
The solution is to have a conservative American businessman buy TikTok
Zuck, X, Amazon, Google and Apple appreciate your patriotic loyalty. And so doe FBI/CIA/NSA. Trust them.
It’s obvious you do not know what you are talking about regarding the products and are just being lead around by the nose. DC and Big Tech laughs at how easy it is to do.
And TikTok is Singaporean. Also hilarious how you scream that it’s owned by red China, and then tell us about how the hedge fund manager has a 33 billion dollar position with them.
Don’t be naïve. If an America tech firm bought tiktok, government would love them again like they do facebook.
DC is only trying to get it’s control tentacles around it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.