What does Trump really want with TikTok?
Incoming US president Donald Trump has changed his mind and is now trying to save social media TikTok in the US despite earlier having wanted it forbidden. On January 19 — one day before Trump takes office—a new law will ban TikTok in the US unless the Chinese-owned company can find a buyer that satisfies US national security concerns about the app. TikTok is reported to have around 150 million active users in the US.
During his first years as president, Trump wanted TikTok forbidden but has later indicated that is re-thinking this.
His latest media surprise came just a few days before Christmas when he asked the Supreme Court to pause the law that has been signed by president Joe Biden. Trump said he wants time to pursue a “political solution”.
The court, shortly before Trump’s new move, agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to the law. The court has set aside two hours for oral arguments on 10 January to consider TikTok’s lawsuit against the justice department and the attorney general, Merrick Garland.
TikTok said it is pleased with the supreme court order as it thinks that a TikTok ban would be unconstitutional.
The EU Commission, Western governments and companies have earlier instructed staff to delete the TikTok app from their business phones.
The background is concern expressed by security people that the Chinese-owned TikTok could collect sensitive data that could be passed on to the Chinese authorities.
The European Parliament has said that European Council and the Commission should exclude the use of equipment and software from manufacturers from high-risk countries, particularly China and Russia, such as ByteDance Huawei, ZTE, Kaspersky, NtechLab or Nuctech.
FBI has said that TikTok’s privacy and data collection policies could allow for the capture of sensitive personally identifiable information and that data could be accessed by the Chinese government.
The share of Americans who support the US government banning TikTok has been falling. In September and prior to the US presidential election, it stood at 32%, down from 38% in fall 2023 and 50% in March 2023.
A third of US adult TikTok users say it’s mostly good for American democracy – roughly double the share who say it’s mostly bad (17%). However, 49% say it has no impact on democracy.
A fact sheet from Pew Research Centre shows that a third of US adults use TikTok. Younger adults are especially likely to do so: 59% of adults under 30 say they use the app, compared with 40% of Americans ages 30 to 49, 26% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.
Almost all adults who use TikTok (95%) say a reason they go there is for entertainment. About half of US adult TikTok users (52%) say they regularly get news there; that works out to 17% of all US adults.
“While news consumption on some other social media sites has declined or remained steady in recent years, the share of US TikTok users who get news on the site has more than doubled since 2020, from 22%”, the Pew says.
About six-in-ten teens ages 13 to 17 (63%) say they use TikTok, including 57% who use it daily and 16% who say they’re on it “almost constantly.”
Teen girls are more likely than teen boys to say they use TikTok almost constantly (19% vs. 13%).
YouTube and Facebook are the most-widely used online platforms, according to the Pew. Half of adults say they use Instagram. On Facebook, the majority are women, 78% versus 61% men, while the gender balance on YouTube is a bit better but with a majority for men, 87% versus 83% for women. Today, 96% say they use the internet.
Other platforms with a majority of users being women are:
- Pinterest, 61% women versus 19% men
- Snapchat 31% women versus 23% men
- WhatsApp 32% women versus 28% men
- TikTok 39% women versus 26% men
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