Trump claims concern over possible TikTok ban, years after he tried to ban it himself

Donald Trump's adminis‐ tration once sought to ban TikTok. Now the former U.S. leader is claiming to have concerns about ef‐ forts by U.S. lawmakers to do the same.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to soon get the chance to vote on proposed legislation that would force the Chinese-owned ByteDance to divest TikTok.

If that doesn't happen within six months, TikTok would effectively be banned by way of barring app stores from legally offering it to users, or companies from providing web-hosting ser‐ vices to ByteDance products.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that he'll sign the legislation if the U.S. Con‐ gress passes it. The bill has the support of powerful Re‐ publicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Leader Steve Scalise. Former U.S. vice-president Mike Pence also supports the bill.

Yet Trump, the likely Re‐ publican presidential nominee this fall, said on so‐ cial media late Thursday that "if you get rid of TikTok, Face‐ book ... will double their busi‐ ness," a seemingly less ad‐ versarial stance than when his administration tried to ban the same platform.

His campaign did not im‐ mediately comment on whether Trump has a posi‐ tion on the legislation. Face‐ book's parent company, Me‐ ta, declined to comment.

TikTok did not immedi‐ ately respond Friday to a re‐ quest for comment from CBC News.

In 2020, Trump sought to ban TikTok and Chineseowned WeChat but was blocked by the courts.

Trump said in an August 2020 executive order that TikTok data collection "threatens to allow the Chi‐ nese Communist Party ac‐ cess to Americans' personal and proprietary information potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal in‐ formation for blackmail, and conduct corporate espi‐ onage."

TikTok, which says it has not and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese

government, argues the pro‐ posed House bill amounts to a ban. It's unclear if China would approve any sale, or if TikTok could be divested in six months.

"This legislation has a pre‐ determined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," the company said af‐ ter a congressional commit‐ tee unanimously supported a vote Thursday to crack down on the platform. "The gov‐ ernment is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression."

The app is popular, and getting legislation approved by both the House and Sen‐ ate in an election year may be difficult. 'A political question' Tensions over TikTok have been bubbling in the U.S. for some time, with the platform facing greater scrutiny during Biden's own presidency, fol‐ lowing the pressure it had al‐ ready faced during Trump's time in office.

And they have extended to this side of the border, with a group of Canadian pri‐ vacy regulators launching a probe last year into TikTok's use and collection of person‐ al information and its compli‐ ance with related legislation.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commis‐ sioner of Canada said Friday that the investigation re‐ mains "a high priority" and that the aim is to release its results "within the coming months."

In 2023, Canada's federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices. Simi‐ lar measures were taken by provinces, territories and even some cities.

Philip Mai, co-director of the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan Univer‐ sity, said any decision to pro‐ ceed with a ban on TikTok would be inherently political. He sees security concerns about the platform being more rooted in how it could affect users as opposed to how it is directly known to.

"Whether we ban TikTok or not, at the end of the day, is a political question," Mai said Friday.

Mai said Trump's recent comments came only days after the former U.S. presi‐ dent glowingly referred to Je‐ ff Yass - a powerful political donor and TikTok investor at a political function.

"The former president has a track record of being very transactional," said Mai.

Matthew Lebo, a political science professor at Western University, saw a reminder of another trend in Trump's way of operating in the political arena.

"His drastic, rapid changes in policy stances are not new or so surprising anymore," he said Friday.

Lebo said the TikTok issue is not one that is necessarily high up on the list of what motivates voters to turn up on election day, and as such, Trump may have some lati‐ tude to change course in this manner.

"He's not going to lose votes, he's just going to tell voters what to think about [the issue]."

The 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old Biden ap‐ pear headed to a rematch at the polls this November.

Last month, Biden's reelection campaign joined Tik‐ Tok. Trump's own campaign has not.

Lebo said both candi‐ dates' campaigns will be looking for ways to reach younger voters as the elec‐ tion gets closer.

Television ads won't be helpful to reach those voters, he said, noting that even platforms like Facebook and Twitter aren't so young any‐ more.