Donald Trump Wants To Keep His Promise To Lift TikTok Ban In The US

Donald Trump promised TikTok freedom (photo: Instagram @realdonaldtrump)

JAKARTA Last April, President Joe Biden officially signed a draft TikTok divestment law (RUU). Through the creation of this bill, the US government is trying to separate TikTok from ByteDance.

Since this bill was enacted, TikTok has been trying to fight back through legal channels. It seems that this video distribution platform will be free from divestment demands from its parent company as elected US presidential candidates will end the regulation.

According to a Washington Post report, Donald Trump will stop the potential ban on the TikTok platform in effect next year. This news is in accordance with Trump's promise during the campaign, which is to free TikTok from coercion of divestment if they win.

Based on the deadline for Biden's bill, TikTok had to separate from China-based parent company for the safety of US society. However, since this rule was made, TikTok has insisted that its platform is not influenced by the Chinese government.

Trump seems to have the same view as the company. For Trump and a number of his supporters, there are many ways that can be done to maintain the security of public data from the Chinese government in addition to limiting the platform.

Although this plan has been disclosed since the campaign period, it is not yet known what the plan of the elected US president will look like in the future. What's more, Trump will take office the day after this divestment rule is enforced.

Before promising TikTok's freedom from divestment rules, Trump had taken the same action as Biden. The former president signed an executive order in 2020 to separate TikTok from ByteDance.

At that time, Trump stated that this platform could benefit the Chinese Communist Party by disinformation its residents. It is not clear what changed Trump's mind because in March the elected president suddenly supported TikTok.