Mark Zuckerberg gave Washington the idea to block TikTok in the US - WSJ • The Bell • RIMA

Mark Zuckerberg gave Washington the idea to block TikTok in the US - WSJ

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg convinced the President of the United States that the rise of Chinese Internet companies threatened American business, naming the TikTok application among them, writes WSJ.

In the fall of 2019, Zuckerberg gave a speech on freedom of speech in Washington. He told Georgetown students that TikTok did not share Facebook's commitment to freedom of expression and also posed a risk to American values and technological superiority.

According to the WSJ, he discussed the same suggestion weeks earlier with officials during a trip to Washington. Zuckerberg also spoke on this topic with Donald Trump and could convince the president of the dangers of TikTok for American business and that the Chinese company is a more important issue "than curbing Facebook."

Following such meetings, Senators Tom Cotton (D-Arkansas) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) wrote a letter to intelligence officials asking for national security investigations into TikTok.

In August of this year, Donald Trump demanded that the application be sold to Microsoft or another company by September 15, otherwise TikTok would “go out of business” and be blocked in the United States. However, at a staff meeting in August, Zuckerberg called the executive order against TikTok undesirable because the global damage from such a move could outweigh any short-term benefit for Facebook.
Few tech companies can capitalize on TikTok's troubles like Facebook, the publication said. In August, Facebook-owned Instagram announced the launch of Reels, a 15-second video service in 50 countries that closely resembles China's TikTok app.
In July, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer publicly accused Facebook of trying to unfairly stifle competition. “Let’s focus our efforts on fair and open competition for the benefit of our consumers, and not on malicious attacks from our competitor, namely Facebook, disguised as patriotism and aimed at ending our very presence in the United States,” he said. on your blog.