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.
Trump’s executive orders kicked off multiple years of legal challenges around TikTok. In the end, the Republicans and the Democrats unified behind an effort to force a sale of the app; last April, Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation requiring TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to a US owner within a year or to shut down. Having both sides of the aisle work together towards a common goal is increasingly rare, by the way: “It took TikTok to bring Republicans and Democrats together in Congress,” Bloomberg marvelled at the time. The war in Gaza reportedly played a role in this sudden spirit of unity: numerous politicians expressed concern that there was too much pro-Palestinian content on the app. Indeed, Mitt Romney referenced the issue in relation to the “overwhelming support” to shut TikTok down.
Having set all this chaos in motion, Trump started to slowly change his tune about TikTok. In December, he proclaimed that he had a “warm spot” in his heart for the app because it had helped him gain traction with young people. One imagines that spot in his heart has grown even warmer, because TikTok has now turned itself into one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders. On Saturday night, shortly before the deeply unpopular ban was about to go into effect, TikTok went dark for its 170 million US users but hinted that Trump might save it. Then, less than 24 hours later, TikTok was brought back to life. Its users were greeted with a welcome message proclaiming: “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US.” It was brilliant PR for the incoming president.
TikTok isn’t “saved”, to be clear. Its future is still uncertain and it probably won’t continue to exist in its current form much longer. I don’t know exactly what will happen with it – maybe it’ll be renamed TrumpTok and sold to Meta, which some say has been trying to undermine TikTok for years – but you’ve got to admire how Trump played this. He walked into his inauguration as the guy who had managed to save a much-loved app from being banned by Democrats. Yes, I know that the reality of the situation is a lot more complex than that but, in politics, perception is reality. And the perception here is that the Democrats owned the TikTok ban, and Trump reversed it.
Trump’s TikTok victory wasn’t entirely of his own making, to be fair. The Democrats essentially gift-wrapped it, and handed it to him with bended knee. But what else do you expect from the Democrats? They’re terrible at messaging. The party is facing its lowest ratings in more than 30 years for a reason: it seems to have no idea who or what it stands for and is completely out of touch with popular concerns, particularly among young people. Polls show that 58% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the party needs major changes, or to be completely reformed. It’s not just TikTok facing an uncertain future; the Democrats need to evolve before they implode.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
• Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
