OPINION: 170 million Americans were used as pawns in a prime example of political theater
Photo via: ByteDance, Screenshot by TechnoKittyCat/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons
So, TikTok was banned… for less than 24 hours. Around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, TikTok servers in the U.S. were shut off, effectively ceasing all app functions for those with accounts based there. This caused temporary disdain, with many users wondering what to do with the extra time without scrolling through the app. And yet, that disappointment turned into confusion when users could open and use the app the next day.
Users opened the app the next day, Jan. 19, to a pop-up stating, “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive…”
During his first presidency, most remember Donald Trump’s willingness to sign a law banning TikTok. So what warranted the switch to protect this app?
In my opinion, it was political posturing, the act of making political moves only for the benefit of appearance. Trump saw the opportunity, seeing that the man he ran against in 2020 signed the same bill banning TikTok, to take back the support of the American people by promising an executive order to restore TikTok in the U.S. Trump just used 170 million TikTok users in an act of saving his image. Knowing he has lost supporters from his first presidency, playing with the First Amendment right for these users will, in his mind, bring those supporters back when he “saves” the beloved app.
But is this not hypocritical? Yes, yes it is. That’s the thing about this act of posturing, the president doesn’t care about hypocrisy (what politician does?) he just wants the support of Americans, whether it is through deception or not.
This also raises questions of whether or not TikTok was in danger of getting banned. Were they stringing us along as part of Trump’s plan? We can tell that the CEO of TikTok trusts Trump, taking his Truth Social post as an official statement that TikTok can go back online. So what has been going on behind closed doors? Has Trump had the CEO in his pocket the entire time?
Trump also called for TikTok to have 50% of U.S. ownership. We all know that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and owner of X (formerly Twitter), could easily afford that half of the company. It also just so happens to be that Musk is Trump’s right-hand man. One can only infer that this could be a ploy to implement Truth Social-esque interfaces to TikTok. Another CEO who seems to be in Trump’s pocket is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. He attended the inauguration and could be a contender for the buyer of America’s half of TikTok. Knowing that these billionaires are close to Trump, would we see a shift in the algorithm on TikTok? Will propaganda infiltrate the app?
All in all, the entire situation regarding TikTok is still up in the air. While Trump promises to sign an executive order to extend the deadline, we don’t know for sure what will happen to it in the future. However, Trump seems to have won some support back for saving the app from being banned as of now. What stands is this: Trump just used 170 million American users in an attempt to win back voters' support.