President Trump Halts TikTok Ban in Defense of Free Speech

By Adam Garrie, The Kennedy Beacon

What may have gotten lost beneath the pomp and circumstance of President Trump’s swearing in on Monday, and former president Biden’s departure from the White House, is how the two men handled the TikTok drama over the weekend.

In a striking ideological clash, Biden’s law to ban the social media app TikTok went into effect on January 19, before a new administration arrived in Washington. Hours later, President Trump countered Biden, pledging he would work with TikTok’s parent company to restore the app’s functionality and keep it online so that a long-term solution can be reached.

Users reported being back on TikTok shortly after Trump issued his statement in favor of keeping the social media app accessible to users in the United States.

On Monday, after his swearing in, Trump signed an executive order, one of his first, to delay Biden’s TikTok ban for 75 days, despite Biden’s law taking effect on Sunday.

In an evening press conference, Trump promised that the Chinese-owned TikTok will be 50% owned in a joint venture with the U.S.

Trump’s executive order regarding the TikTok ban could face legal challenges in the days and weeks to come.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, both President Trump and former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. opposed the TikTok ban on free speech grounds. In fact, Kennedy, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has been a fierce opponent of all censorship, especially when engineered by big tech’s too cozy relationship with the Biden administration.

Kennedy remains a plaintiff in lawsuits against U.S. tech companies that, for four years, acquiesced to Biden administration-directed censorship of Kennedy’s protected speech

Trump’s Sunday statement read:

“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.

Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.

I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions.

Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose”.

TikTok issued its own statement on Sunday:

“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.

It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

Elon Musk, the incoming co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also reaffirmed his view that TikTok should not be banned. Musk added that a reciprocal arrangement should be made whereby Chinese officials end their ban on his X platform in exchange for a restoration of TikTok in the U.S. TikTok’s official X account thanked Musk for his remark.

While President Trump is committed to fully restoring TikTok, the fact that a major forum for creative expression, communication, and commerce had been shut down by the government raises long-term concerns over the health of free speech and the freedom to digitally assemble.

The brief TikTok ban caused the platform’s users to panic, as many rely on it as their primary source of income. It also sent shockwaves through multiple online ecosystems.

Supporters of the ban cited the fact that while TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, its headquarters is in Beijing, China. Because of this, some feared that the Chinese government could access sensitive data of U.S. users.

It is well established that virtually all social media companies access sensitive user data, an issue that has been the subject of multiple privacy lawsuits in U.S. courts filed against Meta, Google/YouTube parent Alphabet, Apple and others.

Also well established is the fact that under the Biden presidency, the White House and federal agencies under its control leveraged their power to force American companies to censor constitutionally protected speech of American citizens.

In his inaugural address, President Trump promised an executive order that will end the heinous practice of government directed censorship of the American people. Later on Monday, President Trump delivered on that promise. This is as good a start as any to a new and more hopeful era in the history of the U.S.

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