Former President Donald Trump wants young voters to know that "Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok."
In a post to Truth Social on Monday, Trump blasted Biden for the legislation, which cleared the House over the weekend as part of the roughly $90 billion foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
"Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok," Trump wrote.
The Republican nominee said that Biden is the one pushing for the ban in order to "help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant."
"He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party," Trump continued.
Trump also asserted that the TikTok ban is "ELECTION INTERFERENCE."
"Itβs called ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" Trump exclaimed. "Young people, and lots of others, must remember this on November 5th, ELECTION DAY, when they vote! They also must remember, more importantly, that he is destroying our Country, and is A MAJOR THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!"
X owner Elon Musk has also opposed the ban, calling it "contrary to freedom of speech and expression." In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the π platform.
Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.
β Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2024
Musk wrote, "In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the π platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for."
TikTok has claimed it contributes $24 billion annually to the U.S. economy.
"It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually," a TikTok spokesperson told CBS News.
The push to ban or force divestment comes after pro-Palestinian content began going extremely viral on the platform.
Lawmakers claim that the bill is motivated by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, having ties to the Chinese government.
