Not even a month ago he had landed on TikTok with the aim of giving momentum to the electoral campaign for le US presidential elections next November. Today, the declared intention to ban the app. As Joe Biden offers its full support in the event that the US Congress were to approve a bill under study with the aim of banning TikTok in the country. It is true that the Chinese social network is a very hot topic at the moment in the United States where people are moving fast towards the November vote and that of Biden appears as an endorsement of the bill in the midst of the electoral campaign.
TikTok, Biden's first post in February
Last February, in fact, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, had published a video for the first time on the Chinese social network with a "bidenhq" profile and a studied timing: it was the evening of the Superbowl, i.e. the final of the American football championship which represents the most important TV event of the year . A landing on TikTok that had already raised doubts the moment it happened: in recent months, in fact, the Biden administration had banned the use of the app on the "company" cell phones of federal employees. The reason? National security. The most popular social network among American teenagers - after YouTube, of course - is in fact Chinese-owned and there have been concerns about the use of data it can make ByteDance, the Beijing firm that owns TikTok. As regards the newly created profile of Joe Biden, the media have made it known that the occupant of the White House did not personally join the platform but that the account is managed entirely by the electoral campaign staff in an attempt to reach the young voters.
Biden, the decision: “Ready to ban TikTok”
Now, however, the TikTok topic is seasoned with a new chapter. Joe Biden, in fact, will sign the TikTok ban "if Congress approves it". He said it himself when speaking to journalists in recent hours. Already in February, the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to uninstall TikTok from all government devices out of fear that the Chinese app could be used for espionage purposes.
As reported on The Washington Post, the measure under study moves on a double track: on the one hand it asks ByteDance Ltd, which is based in Beijing, to sell TikTok and other applications it controls within 180 days of the entry into force of the bill. Only in this way, therefore, would the Chinese social network avoid being definitively blocked in the USA. On the other hand, a new fast-track process is planned to be created to allow US authorities to ban access to an app owned by a foreign adversary if it poses a threat to national security.
Trump's response: "Facebook is the true enemy of the people"
The reply was immediateformer US president, Donald Trump, running for the presidential elections in November, who in a post on his Truth Social attacks: “If you delete TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck (actually a diabetes product, ed) will double their business. I don't want Facebook, which cheated in the last election, to do better. They are a true enemy of the people!”. It is worth remembering that during his stay in the White House, the tycoon had already tried to declare war on Tik Tok. Now, however, the change of objective: Tik Tok is fine, the platform is now in the sights Mark Zuckerberg (deliberately distorted the name in Trump's post), among the first to ban him afterwards the assault on Capitol Hill.
The TikTok reply
“This legislation has a predefined outcome: the total ban on TikTok in the US. The government is trying to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.” One states it spokesperson for TikTok after the green light from the Energy and Commerce Committee of the US House, with 50 votes in favor and none against, the bill relating to the sale of TikTok by ByteDance within six months otherwise the app will be banned in the United States. The move will “harm millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country,” the TikTok spokesperson added.
