Former President Trump is placing blame on President Biden for legislation that could potentially ban TikTok in the United States, after the bill was approved by the House last weekend as part of a package broader foreign aid.
“Just so everyone knows, especially young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump said in a Truth Social article on Monday.
Trump’s opposition to a possible ban on TikTok represents a significant change from the position he held while in office. The former president issued an executive order in 2020 aimed at forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets, although the order was later blocked in court.
The TikTok bill, which is now before the Senate alongside legislation on long-sought aid to Ukraine and Israel, would force ByteDance to sell the app within about a year or face a ban American.
While Biden has signaled support for the measure, Trump has spoken out against the possible ban on TikTok, saying it would benefit Facebook.
“[Biden] This is the one who is pushing him to shut down, and who is doing it to help his friends at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party,” Trump said Monday.
“It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” He continued. “Young people, and many others, must remember this on November 5, ELECTION DAY, when they vote! They must also remember, more importantly, that he is destroying our country and is A MAJOR THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!
Facebook banned Trump in January 2021 following the Capitol riots, during which hundreds of his supporters attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. The former president spent months spreading false claims on the elections on social media before the attack on the Capitol.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, reinstated Trump’s account last year. Trump also met with Jeffrey Yass, a major investor in TikTok and a GOP donor, before announcing his opposition to the ban, but said the summit had nothing to do with its decision.
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