Biden cancels Trump’s TikTok Ban
Image Credit: Solen Feyissa
President Joe Biden has finally overturned Donald Trump’s ban on TikTok in the US – but TikTok isn’t out of the woods yet.
One of Donald Trump’s many, many crusades whilst President was against TikTok. You may have forgotten that particular turbulent period – it’s been quite the year. Now President Joe Biden has overturned Trump’s executive orders against TikTok and ByteDance.
The saga began in August 2020 when the ex-president sought to impose a ban on TikTok, citing national security concerns – that the Chinese government could access TikTok’s user-data with nefarious intent. TikTok and ByteDance were threatened with being blocked from being downloaded from app stores in the US and with a ban on processing transactions from US citizens.
A further executive order threatened a complete ban if TikTok wasn’t sold to an American company. A US court blocked all the orders, pausing the ban, and the app remained online.
Whilst Biden has lifted the threat of a TikTok and ByteDance ban, the President has separately ordered a review of security concerns around the apps, as the White House is still concerned about the use of data collected from users by the app.
The removal of the TikTok ban is good news for artists who have made their music available to be used in the short videos on the app. TikTok has over 100 million users in the US alone – a huge potential audience if videos featuring your song go viral.