Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined TikTok, the short video social media platform that is owned by China-based tech giant ByteDance and that he tried to ban as president, ahead of the US elections in November.

Politico, which first reported the news, said he posted a launch video on his account on Saturday night. The video showed Trump greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey.

The account, President Donald J Trump with the address @realdonaldtrump, had more than 450,000 followers by 0800 GMT.

ByteDance is challenging in courts a US law that came into effect in April requiring it to sell TikTok by next January or face a ban. The White House says it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.

TikTok has argued that it will not share US user data with the Chinese government and that it has taken substantial measures to protect the privacy of its users.

Trump’s attempt to ban TikTok in 2020 when he was president was blocked by the courts. He said in March that the platform was a national security threat but also that a ban on it would hurt some young people and only strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which he has strongly criticized.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign joined the app in February.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Eight TikTok content creators sued the U.S. Government on May 14, issuing another challenge to the new federal law that would ban the popular social media platform nationwide if its China-based parent company doesn’t sell its stakes within a year.

Attorneys for the creators argued in the lawsuit that the law violates users’ First Amendment rights to free speech, echoing legal arguments made by TikTok in a separate lawsuit filed by the company last week. The legal challenge could end up before the Supreme Court.

The complaint filed on May 14 comes from a diverse set of content creators, including a Texas-based rancher who has previously appeared in a TikTok commercial, a creator in Arizona who uses TikTok to show his daily life and spread awareness about LGBTQ issues as well as a business owner who sells skincare products on TikTok Shop, the e-commerce arm of the platform.

The lawsuit said the creators “rely on TikTok to express themselves, learn, advocate for causes, h.are opinions, create communities, and even make a living”.

“They have found their voices, amassed significant audiences, made new friends, and encountered new and different ways of thinking — all because of TikTok’s novel way of hosting, curating, and disseminating speech,” it added, arguing the new law would deprive them and the rest of the country “of this distinctive means of expression and communication”.

A spokesperson for TikTok said the company was covering the legal costs for the lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington appeals court. It is being led by the same law firm that represented creators who challenged Montana’s state-wide ban on the platform last year. In November, a judge blocked that law from going into effect.

The federal law comes at a time of intense strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China on a host of issues and as the two have continued to butt heads over sensitive geopolitical topics like China’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. lawmakers and other administration officials have aired concerns about how well TikTok can protect users’ data from Chinese authorities and have argued its algorithm could be used to spread pro-China propaganda, which TikTok disputes.

Under the law, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance would be required to sell the platform to an approved buyer within nine months. If a sale is in progress, the company will get a three-month extension to complete the deal.

However, TikTok and ByteDance said in their lawsuit last week that they would still have no choice but to shut down by next Jan. 19 because continuing to operate in the U.S. wouldn’t be commercially, technologically or legally possible.

They asserted it would be impossible for ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok platform as a separate entity from the rest of TikTok, which has 1 billion users worldwide — most of them outside of the United States. A U.S.-only TikTok would operate as an island that’s detached from the rest of the world, the lawsuit argues. It also said the Chinese government — which would need to approve such a sale — has “made clear” it would not permit a sale of the recommendation algorithm that populates users’ feeds and has been the “key to the success of TikTok in the United States”.

In an interview, Brian Firebaugh, the Hubbard, Texas-based rancher who is part of the creator lawsuit, said he started his TikTok account in 2020 to help establish his brand and market the cattle-related products that he sells online. That decision allowed him to quit his full-time job and live off the income he was making from TikTok, where he currently has more than 4,30,000 followers.

Firebaugh, 44, said TikTok has also helped him build an online community with other ranchers and gave him the opportunity to participate in a Netflix reality show where his winnings allowed him and his wife to afford the adoption process for their son. Losing TikTok, he said, would disrupt everything.

“One hundred percent of our customers come from TikTok,” Mr. Firebaugh said. “For that to go away, you’re now stealing money out of my family’s mouths.”

Chloe Joy Sexton, a 29-year-old content creator who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and runs a cookie business called Chloe’s Giant Cookies, said she started experimenting with TikTok four years ago after losing her prior job. Ms. Sexton said she had been posting content on other social media platforms, but only TikTok created a viral trajectory for her baking. Today, she has more than 2 million followers on the app, where she has also shared more intimate details about her life, such as losing her mother to brain cancer and subsequently adopting her little sister.

“There has been no evidence whatsoever that my information is in danger or anybody else’s,” said Ms. Sexton, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Nobody has provided that – not the government, not anybody else. And to base this purchase, this tug of war that changes my life off of a hypothetical is so hurtful to me personally, because my government at that point is not protecting me.”

The creators are asking the court to issue a declaration saying the law is unconstitutional and an order that would prevent Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing it. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing:

TikTok parent ByteDance has said it has no intention of selling it, after the US Congress passed a law forcing it to sell the hugely popular video platform or get banned in the United States.

ByteDance’s comment came after the tech business-focused news site The Information reported that the Chinese tech giant was looking at potential scenarios for selling TikTok without the coveted recommendation algorithm that powers it.

“Foreign media reports about ByteDance exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” the company posted late Thursday on its official account on Toutiao, a social media platform it owns.

“ByteDance does not have any plans to sell TikTok.”

US Congress members and government officials have said TikTok presents a national security threat as long as it is controlled by or connected to ByteDance.

They have alleged it could be used to collect data and spy on Americans, and also serve as a powerful channel for Chinese propaganda.

TikTok has strongly denied the allegations, saying it never has and never will share US user data with Beijing.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has said the company will take the fight against the new law to the courts.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AFP

China blasted Washington’s “bandit” mentality after the U.S. House passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it splits from its Chinese owner, and vowed to “take all necessary measures” to protect the interests of its companies overseas.

The short-video app has soared in popularity worldwide but its ownership by Chinese technology giant ByteDance – and alleged subservience to Beijing’s ruling Communist Party – has fuelled concern in Western capitals.

Also Read | U.S. lawmakers see TikTok as China’s tool, even as it distances itself from Beijing

“The U.S. should truly respect the principles of a market economy and fair competition (and) stop unjustly suppressing foreign companies,” Beijing’s commerce ministry spokesperson He Yadong said at a press conference.

Washington should also “provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the U.S.”, He added.

“China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” he said.

Logic of a bandit

At a separate press briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the vote “runs contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules”.

“If so-called reasons of national security can be used to arbitrarily suppress excellent companies from other countries, then there is no fairness and justice at all,” Mr. Wang said.

“When someone sees a good thing another person has and tries to take it for themselves, this is entirely the logic of a bandit.”

Prior to the vote, Beijing had warned that the proposed ban would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.

China has blocked western online platforms such as Facebook and X for years on its heavily-censored internet.

U.S. lawmakers voted 352 in favour of the proposed law and 65 against, striking a rare note of unity in politically divided Washington.

The White House has said President Joe Biden will sign the bill – known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act – into law if it reaches his desk.

But it faces a tricky path through the more cautious Senate, where some are wary of taking dramatic measures against an app with 170 million US users.

TikTok has consistently denied that it is under the control of China’s Communist Party.

Its CEO Shou Zi Chew has urged users to speak out against the vote, and several TikTok creators interviewed by AFP voiced opposition to the proposed ban.

Long-running tensions

The app is at the centre of long-running tensions between China and the United States, which have butted heads in recent years over technology, trade and human rights issues.

Washington has cited national security concerns to limit the activities of some Chinese companies in the United States, as well as the export of certain technologies to China that it deems sensitive.

European regulators are also concerned about the app, with the European Commission on March 14 quizzing TikTok and other platforms such as Facebook, Google and X on what they were doing to counter the risk of AI to elections, including through deepfakes.

China has repeatedly lashed out at what it views as a concerted attempt to “suppress” China’s rise.

Foreign minister Wang Yi said this month that Washington’s “desire to heap blame under any pretext has reached an unbelievable level”.

“The methods used to suppress China are constantly being renewed, and the list of unilateral sanctions is constantly being extended,” Mr. Wang said at a press briefing during annual political meetings in Beijing.

The U.S. House of Representatives on March 13 passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat.

The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the U.S. any time it wants. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering.

Also Read | TikTok is laying off dozens of workers as the tech industry continues to shed jobs in the new year

“We have given TikTok a clear choice,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. “Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.”

Only the first step

The U.S. House of Representatives passage is only the first step. The Senate would also need to pass the measure for it to become law, and lawmakers in that chamber indicated it would undergo a thorough review. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’ll have to consult with relevant committee chairs to determine the bill’s path.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said if Congress passes the measure, he will sign it.

The House vote is poised to open a new front in the long-running feud between lawmakers and the tech industry. Members of Congress have long been critical of tech platforms and their expansive influence, often clashing with executives over industry practices. But by targeting TikTok, lawmakers are singling out a platform popular with millions of people, many of whom skew younger, just months before an election.

Opposition to the bill was also bipartisan. Some Republicans said the U.S. should warn consumers if there are data privacy and propaganda concerns, while some Democrats voiced concerns about the impact a ban would have on its millions of users in the U.S., many of which are entrepreneurs and business owners.

“The answer to authoritarianism is not more authoritarianism,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. “The answer to CCP-style propaganda is not CCP-style oppression. Let us slow down before we blunder down this very steep and slippery slope.”

National security implications

Ahead of the House vote, a top national security official in the Biden administration held a closed-door briefing with lawmakers to discuss TikTok and the national security implications. Lawmakers are balancing those security concerns against a desire not to limit free speech online.

“What we’ve tried to do here is be very thoughtful and deliberate about the need to force a divestiture of TikTok without granting any authority to the executive branch to regulate content or go after any American company,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, the bill’s author, as he emerged from the briefing.

TikTok has long denied that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it is asked. To date, the U.S. government also has not provided any evidence that shows TikTok shared such information with Chinese authorities. The platform has about 170 million users in the U.S.

The security briefing seemed to change few minds, instead solidifying the views of both sides.

“We have a national security obligation to prevent America’s most strategic adversary from being so involved in our lives,” said Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.

But Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said no information has been shared with him that convinces him TikTok is a national security threat. “My opinion, leaving that briefing, has not changed at all,” he said.

“This idea that we’re going to ban, essentially, entrepreneurs, small business owners, the main way how young people actually communicate with each other is to me insane,” Garcia said.

“Not a single thing that we heard in today’s classified briefing was unique to TikTok. It was things that happen on every single social media platform,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.

Republican leaders have moved quickly to bring up the bill after its introduction last week. A House committee approved the legislation unanimously, on a 50-vote, even after their offices were inundated with calls from TikTok users demanding they drop the effort. Some offices even shut off their phones because of the onslaught.

Lawmakers in both parties are anxious to confront China on a range of issues. The House formed a special committee to focus on China-related issues. And Schumer directed committee chairs to begin working with Republicans on a bipartisan China competition bill.

Senators are expressing an openness to the bill but suggested they don’t want to rush ahead.

“It is not for me a redeeming quality that you’re moving very fast in technology because the history shows you make a lot of mistakes,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

In pushing ahead with the legislation, House Republicans are also creating rare daylight between themselves and former President Donald Trump as he seeks another term in the White House.

Trump has voiced opposition to the effort. He said Monday that he still believes TikTok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning the hugely popular app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss.

As president, Trump attempted to ban TikTok through an executive order that called “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China)” a threat to “the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.” The courts, however, blocked the action after TikTok sued, arguing such actions would violate free speech and due process rights.