It Appears Donald Trump Was Right – About TikTok, and many Other Things

The difference 2 1/2 years makes

On August 6^th, 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tremendous sanctions against TikTok which would have rendered the app inoperable in America after about a year. Less than a year later, Biden reversed that order – now he’s banning the app on all Gov’t devices

On Monday, the White House issued a statement ordering all government agencies to rid their devices of the Chinese-owned app TikTok within the next 30 days. The order comes as an effort to prevent China’s communist government from spying on the US through the use of the app.

Reuters was the first agency to report the directive, which was issued by the Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. The edict comes after congressional legislation passed in December banned the popular video-sharing app from federal government devices and systems, amid concerns TikTok’s parent company ByteDance could allow the Chinese Communist Party access to user data.

Ironically, this is exactly the same argument former President Donald Trump made back in August of 2020 when he signed an executive order imposing restrictions on the app that would have prevented the app from receiving updates from the parent company – a move that would have effectively rendered the app unusable within about a year of the ban going into effect.

Trump’s executive order was reported at the time by NPR.

Biden’s prompt reversal of that order was well covered by the BBC, but never was much of a story on American mainstream media, which exists to pander to the left on all things – except for this piece by the Washington Post that relays the facts but makes sure to add some hyperbole at the end claiming Trump is also going after other Chinese sites, making the issue a cultural one instead of a factual one. That’s not even mentioning the public cries of ‘xenophobia’ bellowed by every liberal with a voice, like this writer for TechTarget.

For their part, ByteDance is denying that it would ever share user data with the CCP. It’s also calling those concerns “misinformation.”

Several government agencies, including the White House, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department, had preemptively banned TikTok from government devices before Congress’s December vote.

Chris DeRusha, the OMB’s Federal Chief Information Security Officer, said Monday the guidance “is part of the Administration’s ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people’s security and privacy.”

The memo clarifies that the TikTok ban does not apply if there are approved national security, law enforcement, or security research activities being conducted on government devices, and adds that within 90 days, agencies must address any use of the app by IT vendors through contracts and within 120 days agencies will include a new prohibition on TikTok in all new solicitations.

The federal contractor ban applies to devices used in government work and excludes “any equipment acquired by a federal contractor incidental to a federal contract.”

“TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a major security risk to the United States, and until it is forced to sever ties with China completely, it has no place on government devices,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), sponsor of the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” said in a statement back in December.

Several states, including Maryland, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas, have passed similar legislation banning government agencies from using TikTok over security concerns.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on a bill on Tuesday that would give President Biden the power to ban TikTok from all US devices, but, of course, nobody wants to mention that if Biden hadn’t reversed Trump’s executive order back in June of 2021, none of this would be necessary.

“My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten U.S. national security,” Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas) said. “Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP a backdoor to all their personal information. It’s a spy balloon into your phone.”

Pretty much exactly the same words Donald Trump spoke in 2020. It’s a shame that it took the current administration two and a half years to realize he was right all along.

 

Chief Political Correspondent Kurt Dillon compiled and wrote this article – Because the Truth Matters!

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