Politics in the US has had its fair share of stupid moments, but the recent banning and (sort of) unbanning of TikTok may rank as one of the stupidest. At the same time, the episode neatly encapsulates the current moment: it’s a perfect example of Donald Trump’s showmanship, the Democrats’ incompetence and the limits of bipartisanship. If I were a TikTok teen I’d come up with some sort of experimental dance to illustrate these themes but I’m old and completely devoid of rhythm, so words are going to have to suffice.
Let’s start with Trump, who, with his usual talent for self-promotion, has positioned himself as the guy who brought TikTok back from the dead, despite being responsible for signing its death warrant in the first place. To refresh everyone’s memory, in 2020 Trump issued vaguely worded executive orders that described TikTok and WeChat as threats to national security. There doesn’t seem to be much evidence, by the way, that TikTok is any more of a threat to national security than any of the other data-sucking apps we all have on our phones. The main argument from its critics seems to be that it has Chinese owners – and they’re clearly not going to be responsible stewards of people’s data in the way that Americans such as Mark Zuckerberg are.
