Former US President Donald Trump has raised concerns about the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, calling it a national security threat. In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday, March 11, Trump, 77, expressed his belief that TikTok poses a risk to national security.
"I do believe that," Trump said when asked about TikTok's threat to national security. "I do believe it and we very much have to go into privacy and make sure that we are protecting the American people’s privacy and data rights," he added.
However, Trump also criticized Facebook, describing it as an "enemy of the people" and suggesting that banning TikTok could further empower Facebook. He noted that while there are concerns about TikTok, particularly regarding privacy and data rights, banning the app could have unintended consequences.
"Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it," Trump said. "There are a lot of users, that is, you know a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like is, without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media."
Trump also claimed that he could have banned TikTok during his presidency but chose not to push for it, leaving the decision to Congress. He suggested that he could have "gotten it done" but decided to let Congress decide after considering the implications.
The House is preparing to take up legislation that would ban companies like Apple and Google from offering TikTok web hosting in the US or making it available on their app stores unless parent company ByteDance divests itself within 180 days. President Joe Biden has indicated that he would sign such a bill if it reaches his desk, citing concerns about TikTok's data collection practices.
Trump's comments come amid ongoing scrutiny of TikTok's operations and its handling of user data. Despite these concerns, TikTok remains the most widely used app in the world, with over 1 billion active users.
No comments:
Post a Comment