In 2024 large bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate passed a law requiring that TikTok be banned or sold. Biden signed it into law, well, autopen signed it, whether Biden actually knew about it we'll never know, and the Supreme Court upheld it as constitutional. TikTok was scheduled to be banned in the U.S. on January 19, 2025 unless its parent company, ByteDance divested its U.S. operations. The deadline was set by a provision in that law. It didn't happen, and it still hasn't. TikTok is still owned by ByteDance. It's no secret that ByteDance is key player in the Chinese Communists Party's military-industrialist-surveillance system. ByteDance is subject to the defacto control that the CCP has over all PRC technology companies.
None of these circumstances are debatable, it's not a gray area, and nothing about it is dubious. Under U.S. law, TikTok is officially banned in the US. Except, it isn't. TikTok isn't banned because Trump doesn't feel like banning it. Three times he has claimed presidential privilege to delay implementation of the law. Of all the privileges the president has, that isn't one of them. He made it up. He consistently claims that TikTok has a potential buyer and that a deal is imminent. Last week Trump claimed he would reveal the new buyer "in about two weeks." I think in Trump's world, everything is going to happen in about two weeks.
China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires Chinese companies to assist in intelligence gathering if requested by the government. TikTok reportedly collects a wide range of information, including location data, browse and search histories, and other network activity. There have been actual reports of CCP-controlled ByteDance using TikTok to spy on the physical locations of American journalists. A former TikTok executive stated that the CCP "maintained supreme access" to TikTok data. Five months into Trump's term and the ban is still not being enforced.
However, TikTok has initiated an initiative called "Project Texas" to address US national security concerns. The project involves storing US user data and the systems that power TikTok in the US are being monitored and tightly controlled by US-based employees of TikTok USDS. TikTok states that Project Texas includes government and independent oversight to prevent backdoors into the platform that could be used for information. If you trust China and Xi Jinping then I suppose Project Texas is great. Anyone out there trust China? Didn't think so...
The concerns and allegations regarding TikTok potentially spying on Americans for the CCP are well-documented and valid. For the past several months, TikTok has continued to feed Anti-American crap like "Osama bin-Laden made a lot of reasonable points" and "Hamas was justified" onto the ever-present screens of America's teens and young people. Why does our president, who consistently claims he is "tough with China" keep doing what Xi Jinping wants him to do, in defiance of federal law?
If one cares to delve into the nitty-gritty, it can be more than reasonably argued that TikTok paved the way for the rise of Zhoran Mamdani. You know, the leading candidate for mayor of New York who rants about "seizing the means of production." If that phrase doesn't strike a nerve with you, you are either very young or have not studied world history. For those of us that it does, it's a show-stopper. Full stop.
So, tell us, Donald, why are you allowing this? Even more to the point, to both houses of Congress, why are you allowing him to continue to do this?... You were indeed elected by a considerable margin with voter mandates. Let me be clear, this was not one of them.
