TikTok stood up to President Donald Trump and fired back at him after Trump said that he plans to shut the app down.
What We Know:
- For months, the video-sharing app TikTok has been under fire by the White House and, recently, President Donald Trump decided that he was planning on shutting down the app because he thinks the app poses a threat to national security because of its ties to China.
- “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” he told reporters. “I have that authority. I can do it with an executive order.”
- TikTok fired back at Trump’s plans to ban the app in a statement. “These are the facts: 100 million Americans come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, especially during the pandemic,” the statement said. “We’ve hired nearly 1,000 people to our US team this year alone, and are proud to be hiring another 10,000 employees into great paying jobs across the US.”
- “Our $1 billion creator fund supports US creators who are building livelihoods from our platform,” the statement continued. “TikTok US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls on employee access. TikTok’s biggest investors come from the US. We are committed to protecting our users’ privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.”
- Trump’s administration is looking for alternatives before settling with the banning option like The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States weighing the option on whether the Trump Administration should force Beijing-based ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, to sell TikTok’s operations. So far, no decision is final.
- Amid the issues with TikTok, Facebook offered cash incentives to TikTok users to lure them to use Reels, which is TikTok’s competitor. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called his company uniquely American, which lead the new CEO and COO of ByteDance Kevin Mayer to call out Zuckerberg for pulling the patriotic card to bring down TikTok.
- Mayer wrote a heartwarming blog post that touches on what TikTok is and the positivity it has brought to many users, especially during these hard times. “TikTok has become the place where new music is discovered and explodes onto the scene, such as Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’,” the blog post read.
- “During the pandemic, we saw the resonance of Curtis Roach, whose ‘Bored in the House’ mantra became an anthem for putting a positive spin on tough times and helped people cope with the lockdowns,” the post continued. “And best of all, we witnessed many examples of families coming together to perform multi-generational song and dance, which warmed all of our hearts.”
Microsoft was interested in buying TikTok but put a pause on it because of Trump’s threat.
