From PJMedia.com
On one hand, it doesn’t make any sense: Of all the social media platforms, TikTok skews younger and to the left. (Much younger and more left-leaning than Facebook or X. According to one poll, just 6% of its audience identifies as “mostly conservative.”) It’s emerged as one of the key communicative tools and networking devices for liberal activists, including Antifa. Additionally, it’s a China company.
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And on January 10, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether or not there should be a federal ban.
So why is Trump defending TikTok?
He didn’t always feel this way. In 2020, he threatened a federal ban of TikTok, but never acted on it. But earlier in 2024, President Biden signed a bill that ordered TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok within 270 days.
And to be fair, there are certainly reasons for concern: ByteDance is a Chinese company, and Chinese laws stipulates that a communist government official must sit on their board. In China, government and corporations are inexorably intertwined. Furthermore, should the China government demand access to ByteDance’s data, it’s difficult to envision a scenario where the company says no.
TikTok is an app that’s usually downloaded on phones. It tracks all kinds of sensitive demographic information, including your interests, passions, fantasies, and desires — as well as your geographic location.
For very obvious reasons, you can understand why the U.S. government wouldn’t want its soldiers, sailors, and Marines running around a military base with TikTok on their phones. Some restrictions make sense.
But honestly, the data that TikTok tracks isn’t all that different from the data tracked by Google, Apple, Meta/Facebook, or Amazon. They’re all monetizing users’ data. TikTok isn’t more or less onerous than any of the rest.
Monetizing users’ data is at the heart of ALL their profit models.
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So, it’s not like TikTok is bad and all the others are good. They’re ALL bad. They’re ALL violating your privacy.
Even if TikTok was banned from existence and expunged from the face of the Earth, the Chinese government could still access the exact same data! They’d simply buy it from Google or Meta!
There’s also the free speech aspect. Love it or hate it, TikTok is a communication tool — users share videos, stories, opinions, and ideas — and there’s something deeply foreboding about the government interfering in private communications. That’s an awfully slippery slope.
But forget about the philosophical arguments. In a Machiavellian sense, wouldn’t you expect Trump to support banning TikTok? He doesn’t need the platform — he has X and Elon Musk in his back pocket. Besides, Meta/Facebook have gotten increasingly right-leaning in recent years. And Trump has a personal ownership stake in Truth Social!
Politically, it would be better for MAGA if TikTok vanished, because it would deprive liberals of one of their favorite social networking platforms. And economically, TikTok has 150 million active users in the U.S. (and over one billion worldwide); were it to vanish, it seems reasonable that other platforms — including Truth Social — would be the beneficiaries.
So what’s going on? Why is Trump supporting TikTok?
It’s Part II of the Great Realignment.
The Democratic Party used to represent the working man. Not anymore: Blue collar workers, union members, and tradesmen have all gone MAGA. As the Democrats became increasingly beholden to the Pronoun Police, the Gender Gestapo and the Loony Left, working men and women felt abandoned.
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Trump sensed an opening and won them over.
And now, there’s a second opening: Younger Americans don’t like the Pronoun Police, the Gender Gestapo or the Loony Left any more than working men do. It’s part of the reason why Trump did so well with younger voters. Even ultra-liberal NPR (!) acknowledged the truth: “This year, [youth voters] swung towards Trump in a big way.”
Consider the backdrop: Old Man Biden tried to ban TikTok. 150 million Americans use TikTok.
Donald Trump saved TikTok!
He’ll be a hero to millions of young people. It’s actually quite clever.
The Great Realignment is still underway, and the president-elect is playing 3-D chess. And another big piece is just about to topple over.
All articles possibly rephrased by InfoArmed.com