Donald Trump is not wasting one second in his second term.
He knows that the first 100 days are crucial.
And Donald Trump reversed this Biden order that infuriated mainstream Republicans.
TikTok ban in limbo
Back in 2023, Permanent Washington attempted to pass the RESTRICT Act, which ultimately would have banned the social media app TikTok, which is owned by the CCP-backed company ByteDance.
But the RESTRICT Act did far more than ban TikTok.
It gave the federal government all sorts of surveillance power on companies deemed “foreign threats.”
The RESTRICT Act was essentially the PATRIOT Act on steroids.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on Fox News to defend the bill, but was humiliated by primetime host Jesse Watters.
The RESTRICT Act went down in flames, but it was replaced by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was passed and signed by Joe Biden.
The newer version did not have the same teeth, but it still required TikTok to be shut down if it was not sold to an American buyer.
Upon coming into office, Donald Trump halted the shutdown of TikTok to allow more time for an American buyer to come along.
Trump initially supported a TikTok ban, but he was persuaded by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and others that the arguments given about TikTok being a security threat were bogus.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a staunch opponent of the ban, explained on social media, “The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse. The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, 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.’”
Trump also discovered that the app was very popular among Gen Z Republicans.
Legacy media have lost narrative control
Meanwhile, older, more establishment-oriented Republicans are still itching to shut down TikTok.
For instance, Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire wrote on social media, “The CCP is our enemy. TikTok is a Chinese op. It is designed to manipulate Westerners into parroting CCP propaganda while gathering all their data. If TikTok divests itself of Chinese ownership, it should continue to operate. If not, it should not.”
However, one user pointed out that The Daily Wire has a major presence on TikTok.
He responded, “You and the DailyWire have TikTok accounts, by the way. Why did you volunteer to be spied on and manipulated by China???”
You and the DailyWire have TikTok accounts, by the way.
Why did you volunteer to be spied on and manipulated by China??? pic.twitter.com/QBjzKmwZt3
— George (@BehizyTweets) January 17, 2025
Senator Paul and others have pointed out that the supposed concerns about China having access to Americans’ data are illegitimate.
Unfortunately, Americans’ data can already be legally purchased by data brokers, so the CCP would not even need to surreptitiously accumulate data through TikTok.
The other argument is that the American version of TikTok pushes debauchery on young people while the Chinese version pushes educational videos.
Even though TikTok’s algorithm might allow corrosive videos to spread, that’s a bigger cultural issue.
For example, the nonsense being taught on American college campuses and even K-12 schools is more harmful than anything on TikTok.
And the same content can be found on other social media apps.
The real reason that the establishment of both parties wants TikTok banned is the same reason that the Washington, D.C., Swamp did not want Elon Musk to purchase Twitter.
The Swamp had an arrangement with the old guard at Twitter that allowed alphabet agencies to have significant sway over content.
The Deep State wants to have narrative control so it can push public opinion in the direction of endless wars.
Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admitted as much to retired Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) during a spring 2024 chat at the McCain Institute.
Romney asked Blinken why “the PR has been so awful” for Israel in the Gaza war, and Blinken named TikTok as the culprit.
Romney said, “Why has Hamas disappeared in terms of public perception? . . . An offer is on the table for a ceasefire and yet the world is screaming about Israel.”
Blinken lamented the fact that there are so many outlets for news, not just the broadcast networks and a handful of cable news stations and influential newspapers.
Blinken explained, “Now of course we’re on an intravenous feed of information with new impulses, inputs every millisecond. . .And of course the way this has played out on social media has dominated the narrative. You have a social media ecosystem, environment in which context, history, facts get lost and the emotion, the impact of images dominate. We can’t discount that, but I think it also has a very very challenging effect on the narrative.”
Romney agreed with Blinken’s assessment and said that was why “there was such overwhelming support for us to potentially shut down TikTok.”
The Washington, D.C., Swamp wants narrative control so it can justify its ambitions, regardless of what the President or the American people want.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
