Some of TikTok’s biggest US stars beg Trump not to ban app, while other users protest the social media way
- TikTok users are scoring millions of views with raps and an open letter opposing President Donald Trump’s threat of a US ban on the social media app
- ‘Didn’t think this through, little Donny, did you? Not much of a businessman,’ one user freestyles on a clip with more than a million views and 500,000 likes
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A TikTok star pounds a beat as she weaves lyrics mocking the idea of US President Donald Trump banning the short-form video sharing app.
“Didn’t think this through, little Donny, did you? Not much of a businessman,” she rapped.
“You can ban this app, there’ll be a new one. There’s supply where there’s demand.”
Another video snippet racking up views was captioned “Me trying to convince Trump to let us keep TikTok” and showed a woman colouring her face orange and building a brick wall.
American comedian Elijah Daniel used Twitter to bid farewell to his TikTok followers, giving “a big shout out to Donald Trump for mishandling the entire pandemic” but then taking away an app raising people’s spirits.
You can still use TikTok in Hong Kong if you really want to
Twenty TikTok stars, whose combined followings top 100 million people, posted an open letter to Trump on the website Medium arguing against banning the app.
“It’s got to be an American company … it’s got to be owned here,” Trump said. “We don’t want to have any problem with security.”
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Trump gave ByteDance until mid-September to strike a deal. Whatever the price is, he said, “the United States should get a very large percentage of that price because we’re making it possible”.
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Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance
He compared the demand for a piece of the pie to a landlord demanding under-the-table “key money” from a new tenant, a practice widely illegal, including in New York, where the billionaire president built his real estate empire.
Trump said the sale of TikTok’s US business would have to result in a significant payout to the US Treasury for initiating it.
The rise of TikTok and why US lawmakers are threatening to ban it
Before the event in Tulsa, Oklahoma – hyped as a major relaunch ahead of the November presidential election – Trump’s campaign chairman tweeted that more than a million tickets had been requested. But according to the local fire department, just 6,200 people turned up.
“Now I don’t think it’s a coincidence after Tulsa was a flop; out of the blue, now suddenly you, want to go ahead and ban TikTok,” @maya2960 rapped.
“There are serious concerns over how the app collects its data that merit an American response,” those signing the letter said. “But ironically, it is the first company to challenge the companies that have put an end to the open internet.”
TikTok was a ‘stress reliever’ for Hong Kong’s domestic helpers
Dan Ives, an analyst at financial services and investment firm Wedbush, said in a note to investors that the chances of Microsoft buying TikTok are strong. “Microsoft buying TikTok would be a coup,” Ives said, noting the valuation could be worth around US$40 billion.
