SpaceX CEO Elon Musk extended his support to United States former President Donald Trump in denouncing a potential ban on the Chinese app TikTok, which is popular among the youth in the country.
In the wake of legislation likely to be passed by House Republican leader this week, Musk took to his social media platform and said that the Congressional bill which prohibits access to the application will amount to “censorship and government control”.
“This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control! If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite “foreign control” as the issue, but it does not,” he wrote on X.
Musk also reposted a post of Rep. Thomas Massie who had spoken against the potential TikTok, calling it a Trojan horse and stated that this will only empower the president to ban not only apps but also websites.
“The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse. The President will be given the power to ban WEBSITES, not just Apps. The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the “foreign adversary”,” said Massie, in a post.
This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control!
If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite “foreign control” as the issue, but it does not. https://t.co/3hpePCE1nS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2024
What did Trump say about the TikTok ban?
Trump noted that lots of kids ‘will go crazy’ without the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform which is being seen as a national security threat for the US due to alleged links to the Communist Party as well as concerns over user data sharing and privacy.
Trump, who himself in 2020 tried to ban TikTok, said that if the proposal is implemented, it will give unfair advantages to Facebook owner Meta.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you’re going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” said Trump, while speaking to CNBC about the controversial app.
Watch: Gravitas: TikTok’s desperate lobbying effort backfires in US
“I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country,” he said.
“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 further said.
Lawmakers have been discussing a measure which will force Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok in the US by September 30. President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill if it is cleared by US Congress.
