TikTok influencers responded to President Donald Trump's Friday night threat to ban the Chinese music and video app with an outpouring of angst on the platform.
The response: There were tears, there was profanity and there was self-promotion — with young creators urging their fans to follow them to other social media platforms.
a juicy thread of creators responding to the TikTok ban 👇
— Alice Ophelia (@iamaliceophelia) August 1, 2020
kicking it off with the baddest bleep on the platform: Addison Rae [@whoisaddison] pic.twitter.com/zWBGhyWxZQ
A number of influencers accused Trump of moving to silence their advocacy against him and on behalf of progressive causes, like the Black Lives Matter Movement.
"TikTok is to Black Lives Matter what Twitter was to the Arab Spring," Kareem Rahma, 34, who posted popular videos from BLM protests in Minneapolis, told The New York Times.
"I saw a lot of youth on the ground TikToking the protests as opposed to livestreaming, tweeting or Instagramming," he said. "The conversations these kids are having with each other are essential.”
Nine popular TikTok influencers on Sunday published an open letter to Medium pleading with Trump to "think again about his decision to eliminate TikTok from America’s shores" in the name of an "open internet."
TikTok released statements on Saturday reassuring users and claiming to be a valuable and secure source of "entertainment and connection" for American families.
A matter of national security: "As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States," Trump told reporters while aboard Air Force One on Friday night, saying he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order. "I have that authority."
- Hours earlier, Bloomberg first reported the Trump administration would force TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese business ByteDance, to divest its stake in the music and video app over national security concerns.
- The White House has sought for months to reduce the presence of TikTok and other Chinese owned services in the United States due to risks of user privacy, censorship and misinformation.
Microsoft, which has recently emerged as a potential buyer of TikTok, reportedly suspended negotiations on Saturday after Trump signaled his opposition.
- But in a statement on Sunday, Microsoft said it was "prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States."
- The software giant said it "fully appreciates" Trump's concerns and promised any deal would require "a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury."
Trump gave Microsoft 45 days to reach a deal to acquire TikTok, Reuters reported on Sunday.
- Republican sources told Axios over the weekend that Trump may allow the acquisition to go through on condition of a "complete separation" of TikTok’s connections to Beijing.
