Incoming US President Donald Trump is not voting for a TikTok ban in the United States for now. With that, the future of the social medium seems a little brighter.
Trump indicated last Sunday that he would not mind if TikTok could still be used in the US for a while. He said his party achieved billions of views on the Chinese medium during his presidential campaign.
The future president made this known at an annual meeting organized by the conservative group Turning Point. This may be a clear signal that Trump is against a TikTok ban.
Why the U.S. wants to ban TikTok
The U.S. government is concerned about whether TikTok is affecting national security. Because ByteDance, the company behind the app, is from China, the US suspects the company has ties to the Chinese government and may be passing on information.
So in April, the U.S. Senate passed a law requiring the app to disappear from the U.S., or be sold to another country. The owners of TikTok sought to have this law invalidated. The U.S. Supreme Court is now hearing the case.
(image: unsplash)
If the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favor and the app remains in Chinese hands, the app could be banned in the US on Jan. 19. That’s a day before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Other countries also doubt allowing app
The US is not the only country having doubts about the Chinese app. Starting in early 2025, there will be a TikTok ban in Albania. This was decided by the government after a 14-year-old boy was killed in a stabbing. This may have been preceded by an argument on the medium, although according to the owners of the app, the boys involved did not have a TikTok account.
A ban on TikTok has also not been ruled out in the European Union. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stresses that the risks of the medium have been known for some time. That is why the EU already bans the app on business phones.
