Kate Mills 
Mar 13, 2024
An undated image displaying TikTok on a mobile screen. — Pixabay
Former US President Donald Trump condemned the bill proposed in the US Congress seeking to ban the Chinese-owned tech firm ByteDance in the US or divest it from its globally famed app TikTok.
While he himself made a botched attempt to ban the app during his tenure in 2020, the reasoning he holds behind his stance is that the ban would only be beneficial to the FaceBook.
"Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people," BBC reported Trump as saying. On the contrary, President Joe Biden has said he will sign the bill if it will be passed from both the US House of Representatives and Senate.
Read more: TikTok to be sold — Bobby Kotick mulls acquisition
When asked about the security concerns regarding the app, he added that "there's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad" with TikTok.
The US intelligence community has also warned the US government, claiming that ByteDance provides US-based TikTok users' data to the Chinese government, which US officials fear could be used to manipulate US citizens about the credibility of the incumbent US government as well as compromise democracy.
In contrast, the Chinese tech giant refuted the claims, saying that it has and done and would not do so even if asked.
In the annual report on threats to US security released on Monday, the Office of the Director of National intelligence stated that TikTok accounts from the Chinese government's propaganda arm "reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022".
Besides having an staunch stand against banning TikTok in the US and dubbing FaceBook as a a threat to the US government, Trump remarked that he agrees with those who consider TikTok a threat to national security,
"I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections," Mr Trump added.
The bill has also been opposed by the Club for Growth — a conservative lobbying group with friendly ties with Mr Trump.
