WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday downplayed issues concerning the Chinese language authorities utilizing TikTok to surveil Individuals — saying they might observe “young kids watching crazy videos.”
Trump, 78, stated in his first interview since reclaiming energy that he was conscious of safety issues concerning the platform, which has an estimated 170 million US customers, however thought they had been overblown.
“Those that say they know say it’s a spying app for the Communist Chinese,” Fox Information host Sean Hannity instructed Trump within the Oval Workplace sit-down two days into Trump’s second time period.
“I know. But you can say that about everything made in China,” Trump replied.
“Look, we have our telephones made in China for the most part. We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?”
Trump, who stated he had a “warm spot” for TikTok as a consequence of his improved efficiency amongst younger voters, famous that the community is used primarily for amusing movies.
“The interesting thing with Tiktok, though, is you’re dealing with a lot of young people, So is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?” Trump stated.
“They make your telephones and they make your computers and they make a lot of other things. Isn’t that a bigger threat?”
Trump halted the implementation of a congressionally accredited ban on TikTok on his first day in workplace on Monday, suspending the prohibition by 75 days.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew joined different tech titans in attending Trump’s Monday inauguration.
The newly sworn-in president stated he desires Chinese language proprietor ByteDance to promote a 50% share to an American accomplice.
“People want to buy it,” Trump instructed Hannity.
Congress voted overwhelmingly final 12 months to ban TikTok if the Chinese language agency wouldn’t divest.
The laws sailed via the Senate in a 79-18 vote and the Home in a 360-58 landslide and was signed by then-President Joe Biden, who finally deferred to Trump on whether or not to implement the ban, which had been set to take impact on his last day in workplace.
Trump beforehand was skeptical of TikTok, signing an govt order in 2020 that stated its “data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
He later got here out towards a ban on TikTok, saying it could increase Fb’s energy to censor political speech.
“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 can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” stated Trump, who was barred from posting on the Mark Zuckerberg-led community in 2021.
