• Republican nominee for president Donald Trump said Joe Biden would be “responsible” for any TikTok ban because he pointed out that Biden was “pushing” for a ban on TikTok.
  • Donald Trump’s campaign has not joined TikTok in February.
  • However, owing to national security concerns, Trump tried to impose a ban on Chinese-owned WeChat and TikTok in 2020 while he was still in office, but the courts rejected his attempts.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, warned voters to pay attention on Monday by claiming that President Joe Biden was “pushing” for a ban on TikTok and that he would be held accountable if one were to be implemented.

Trump’s views on TikTok ban

By a vote of 360 to 58 on Saturday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation that would give ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to shut down its operations in the United States or risk being banned.

In a post published on Monday on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that Biden would be “in charge of prohibiting TikTok.” He is the one driving it toward closure and doing so in order to support his more powerful and wealthy Facebook pals.

But while he was still in office in 2020, Trump attempted to impose a ban on Chinese-owned WeChat and TikTok due to national security concerns, but the courts blocked his efforts.

Trump recently claimed that limiting TikTok would improve Meta Platforms’ Facebook, a platform for which he has faced criticism ever since his access was removed following the riot in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Last year, his account was opened again.

The Biden reelection campaign joined TikTok in February while the campaign of Trump hasn’t.

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Hear them out

In an email obtained by Reuters over the weekend, TikTok informed staff that as soon as Biden signs the bill “we will move to the courts for a legal challenge. We’ll continue to fight, as this legislation is clear of the First Amendment.”

A White House spokesperson said on Monday: “We do not want to ban apps like TikTok. What we want— and what the legislation we support would do— is ensure that TikTok becomes owned by an American so that our and our children’s sensitive personal data stays here instead of going to China and so that Americans’ understanding and views can’t be manipulated by algorithms potentially controlled by the PRC.”