Former President Donald Trump expressed concerns about banning TikTok and its impact on freedom of speech in an interview with Fox News.
While he had previously pushed for a government ban over national security concerns regarding its Chinese ownership, Trump now argues banning the app could restrict the free exchange of ideas.
“After the House voted to overwhelmingly ban TikTok if it doesn’t cut ties with its China-based parent company, Trump told Fox News why he no longer favors a government ban that he pushed as President on national security grounds, citing the free exchange of ideas,” Fox News’ Howard Kurtz said.
Trump believes that if TikTok users were no longer able to use the app, they would simply migrate to Facebook, which Trump views as even more problematic due to its ties to China.
“But there’s a danger to banning it with freedom of speech. I found Facebook to be extremely dishonest. And what would happen is, if you ban TikTok, if you take it away, we have a new concept, but if you take it away, those people are going to go into Facebook. And Facebook, in my opinion, was worse than TikTok by a lot,” Tump said in a video.
“Trump, who recently met with philanthropist Jeff Yass, says he didn’t know the billionaire owns a stake in TikTok’s parent firm,” Kurtz said.
Instead of an outright ban, Trump proposed requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company to fully divest ownership and sell the app on the open market to remove it from China’s control.
“[I]f you’re going to do it to TikTok, do it to Facebook, and what can you do is, let them sell TikTok, let them sell it in the market, maybe get a good price, maybe not get a good price, I don’t know, but take it away from China control. But I think China controls Facebook, also, because they have tremendous power in that company,” Trump said.
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