Reports have emerged that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg was one of the key forces behind the key decision of US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese owned app, TikTok from the country.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg actively lobbied the US President as well as members of congress for a ban on TikTok at dinners and private meetings.
Zuckerberg expressed concerns about the rise of Chinese internet companies threatening American businesses at these meetings, which fueled the fears of Congress that the Chinese app posed a national security risk.
The Facebook Boss, expressed the same sentiments, during a speech at Georgetown University back in October, 2019. He said at the time, “On TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of protests are censored, even in the U.S. Is that the internet we want?”
Facebook as a company also tried to lobby lawmakers and senators with strong anti-China sentiments, pointing out the fact that American companies are not allowed to operate in China same way Chinese businesses operate in the US.
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TikTok’s trouble started in October 2019 after Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer demanded an official inquiry into the Chinese app. Several weeks later, the parent company, Bytedance came under a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment.
This was followed by the US Army banning its personnel from downloading the app citing security concerns. In August, 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking the app in the United States except it sells its operations to an American business.
According to reports, while TikTok was going through trials and tribulations at the hands of the US Government, Facebook was aggressively pushing forward with the development of a competitor app, ‘Reels’. Its executives also attempted to lure key TikTok employees to work for Facebook exclusively.