Act 1, Scene 1 – The Debate
Biden: “If they pass it, I’ll sign it.” Yes. Biden will sign a bill to ban TikTok if Congress passes it.
Trump: “If China wants anything from [TikTok], they will give it, so that’s a national security risk [that] goes up…But when I look at it, I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size. And if you ban TikTok, Facebook and others — but mostly Facebook — will be a big beneficiary, and I think Facebook has been very busy. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections”.
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Act 1, Scene 2 – The Past
Trump (2020): In 2020, Trump signed an executive order banning U.S. companies from transactions with ByteDance (TikTok parent firm), stating that “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.”
Biden (2021): Biden revokes and replaces Trump order that banned TikTok.
Act 2, Scene 1 – Ahead of Election
You need to reevaluate everything to see how to win young voters. If Biden signs a TikTok ban, he loses even before the election as Trump repositions for young people. Yes, in politics, nothing is absolute including an app.
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When it comes to winning elections, everything is fluid, no fixed position, just moving targets.
If TikTok were to be an American company, its future would have been assured, but now it will keep taking some beatings, not for any malfeasance, but rather something must be blamed.
Politics was meant to be for noblemen, but that’s where we have largest concentration of scoundrels.