Trump says it could be
worth keeping TikTok in
US for a little while
The success of the US president-elect’s campaign on the app resulted in billions of views during his presidential run.
Trump’s comments before a crowd of conservative supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, were one of the strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the US market.
The US Senate passed a law in April requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app, citing national security concerns.
TikTok’s owners have sought to have the law struck down, and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. But if the court does not rule in ByteDance’s favour and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the US on Jan 19, one day before Trump takes office.
It is unclear how Trump would go about undoing the TikTok divestiture order, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.
“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” Trump told the crowd at AmericaFest, an annual gathering organised by conservative group Turning Point.
“They brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see, and as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we gotta keep this sucker around for a little while’,” he said.
Trump met with TikTok’s CEO on Monday. Trump said at a news conference the same day that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok thanks to his campaign’s success on the app.
The justice department has argued that Chinese control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, a position supported by most US lawmakers.
TikTok says the justice department has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the US on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp, while content moderation decisions that affect US users are made in the US.
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