By Mikayla Boyd, Assistant Opinion Editor
On Monday, Jan. 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the President of the United States. Hours before, one of the largest social media platforms, TikTok, temporarily shut down. A fierce battle for the future of the app is taking place in America – one that has reached all three branches of government and is still ensuing. But this is no battle for the betterment of Americans. This is a performative battle full of empty acts to gain reactions from the country. TikTok has a longstanding history of being controversial for its Chinese ownership. Republicans and right-wing politicians have denounced TikTok in the past, claiming that its connections with the Chinese Communist Party pose a national security risk and that the app pollutes the minds of Americans with communist propaganda. So how did Trump, one of China’s fiercest critics, come to save this Chinese app – and why?
On Saturday, Jan. 18, one day before the ban was slated to begin, the Biden administration announced that they would not enforce the ban. Instead, the choice to enforce the ban (or not enforce it) would be left up to the next administration. The Biden administration additionally announced that TikTok’s threat to ‘go dark’ on Sunday was a stunt. Thus, TikTok had assurance that no repercussions or actions would be taken against it for days.
Yet, at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, the app sent warnings to users that a U.S. law would force TikTok to make their services “temporarily unavailable.” Hours later, the app became unusable. A pop-up to users told them that a U.S. law banning TikTok has been enacted and “that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” Curiously, the pop-up mentioned Trump by name, stating that “President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.” A day later, on Jan. 19, TikTok restored service and thanked President Trump, again by name, stating, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” This entire time, Joe Biden was in office. So why would this company thank Trump, by name, for saving the app?
There is no clear answer. In 2020, Trump was the president who first sparked talks of banning TikTok, yet here we are four and a half years later and he is the one who happens to be ‘saving’ it. It is worth noting that the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, had previously reposted a video of Donald Trump Jr. and Charlie Kirk, two men close to President Trump. This suggests a connection between Shou and Trump which could give light as to why Trump was mentioned by name.
No matter the cause of the outage, whether it was purposefully co-orchestrated by Trump and TikTok executives or an honest misunderstanding on TikTok’s part, it has led to individuals praising Trump. Trump has used this to his advantage. While Americans return to TikTok, users return to their echo chambers and perfectly curated For You Pages. Meanwhile, Trump signs executive orders that have crippling effects on Americans.
His orders have threatened birthright citizenship (a right enshrined in the Constitution), pulled the United States out of climate agreements and the World Health Organization and pardoned all criminals who participated in the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection – just to name a few. While Americans return to TikTok, they are ignoring the steps that Trump is taking to destroy our democracy. The ban and quick return created and then cured panic among the American people, but it was just a distraction. Given that the Biden administration had given clarity to TikTok that no action would be taken, I find it hard to believe this was anything but a stunt to please Americans and draw their attention away from government matters. Whatever you believe the TikTok ban and outage was caused by, I encourage you to stay informed. Do not let the smoke and mirrors distract you from what is really happening in this country.