On Saturday January 19, the supreme court banned TikTok in the Unites States. Shortly after, TikTok announced to users trying to access the app that Donald Trump was working on resolving the issue. Many people were quick to point out that it was Trump himself that initiated the TikTok ban in the first place. By noon on Sunday though? The social media app was back:
A montage of Trump repeatedly bragging about banning TikTok is now surfacing online.
Can’t make this up. pic.twitter.com/ilIpiXIPkm
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 19, 2025
Hilariously, China has also banned the app that US lawmakers are so afraid of.
TikTok: literally owned by Americans
According to TikTok, Chinese entrepreneurs created ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company and is a ‘privately-held global company’. Huge global investment first own 60% of it, including Blackrock, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group. Essentially, 60% of Tiktok is owned by very rich men. Only 20% of Tiktok is still owned by its original founders, and the final 20% is owned by employees – including over 7,000 US employees. 60% of its board members are American.
They state:
It is not owned or controlled by any government or state-controlled entity.
The shady part of all of this? Blackrock are literally in bed with the US government.
The BlackRock Liquid Federal Trust Fund:
invests 100% of its assets in US Treasury bills, notes, and other obligations issued by the US government.
Additionally, according to Bismarck Brief the asset manager has a ‘preferential relationship’ with federal regulators and presidential administrations. This means it serves as a ‘channel of influence on the corporate world’.
Blackrock invests in the US government. So essentially, TikTok starts losing revenue and in turn, so will the US government. No one can tell us they didn’t know this all along. While US lawmakers are leading us to believe the Chinese Government has huge influence of TikTok and users data, we should probably be more worried about the influence of the US government.
Playing with power
In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order which imposed broad sanctions against TikTok.
It claimed:
the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application in particular, TikTok.
It went on to say:
TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories. This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.
How is this different to the data Elon Musk is collecting and storing on X users?
TikTok also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. This mobile application may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, such as when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
Again, we have seen for ourselves since Elon Musk bought X the far-right conspiracy theories he has peddled. Additionally, in the run up to the US presidential election he was effectively able to buy Trumps presidency.
This is who @ElonMusk really is. Don’t buy a Tesla.
Location: Tesla European HQ, Amsterdam. pic.twitter.com/KiFfAkQ0bP
— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) January 7, 2025
TikTok and Trump: one big publicity stunt?
People are already debating if the ‘new’ TikTok will mean more censorship:
TikTok just got into bed with Tr*mp. Musk owns Twitter. Zuckerberg owns Facebook & Instagram…
Every major platform is now a right-wing hellscape.
We’re about to see an enormous amount of censorship regarding any topic that goes against their beliefs. This is fascism.
— Anna Horford (@AnnaHorford) January 20, 2025
Once TikTok announced to US users that Trump was working on overturning the ban, people were quick to point out that it wouldn’t exist in the first place – if it wasn’t for him.
Yes, to all the people who bookmarked this post, TikTok is now back online. How did I know? pic.twitter.com/ZBYCNlGMul
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 19, 2025
It seems it was nothing short of a five-year-long publicity stunt. Of course, with Trump, that’s all his policy-making bullshit ever really is – so no surprises there.
Buckle up, because there’s likely plenty more where this came from. And now, we have the next four years of Trump’s vanity show to tune into. Thanks a lot America.
Feature image via the Canary
