TikTok just tagged Facebook into its ongoing battle with Donald Trump.
Earlier this morning, the Trump administration announced it would follow through with its ban on TikTok starting this Sunday. (Note: A deal between TikTok and U.S.-based Oracle is still waiting to be finalized, which would likely put a stop to this ban.)
Upon hearing the news, Facebook’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shared his criticism of the decision on Twitter.
Careful with this headline, the ban is only of *new downloads* of TikTok, an outright ban will happen on 11/12 unless a deal is made.
I’ve said this before, but a US TikTok ban would be quite bad for Instagram, Facebook, and the internet more broadly. https://t.co/2tPPgAkI4K
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) September 18, 2020
“I’ve said this before, but a US TikTok ban would be quite bad for Instagram, Facebook, and the internet more broadly,” Mosseri wrote.
TikTok’s interim head, Vanessa Pappas, had a response. Pappas is TikTok’s former U.S. general manager. She moved into the leadership position after the resignation of former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, who left due to the political pressure from the Trump administration.
We agree that this type of ban would be bad for the industry. We invite Facebook and Instagram to publicly join our challenge and support our litigation. This is a moment to put aside our competition and focus on core principles like freedom of expression and due process of law.
— Vanessa Pappas (@v_ness) September 18, 2020
“We agree that this type of ban would be bad for the industry,” tweeted Pappas to Instagram’s Mosseri. “We invite Facebook and Instagram to publicly join our challenge and support our litigation. This is a moment to put aside our competition and focus on core principles like freedom of expression and due process of law.”
Of course, it’s highly unlikely that Facebook will do that. The social media giant views TikTok as a competitor and has tried (and already failed) to replicate the viral video app’s success on Facebook.
In fact, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously piled on the anti-TikTok rhetoric in Washington by speaking out against the app to lawmakers. At the time, a Facebook spokesperson said Zuckerberg’s critique shouldn’t be viewed as advocating for the app to be banned, but it certainly doesn’t sound like Zuckerberg would step up to defend it either.
In many ways, TikTok and Facebook are polar opposites of the current political battle. TikTok’s young users have openly collaborated together for mass anti-Trump campaigns, trolling the president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Facebook, on the other hand, has worked to curry favor with the Trump administration. Seemingly on a daily basis, the top content spread on the social media platform are from conservative outlets and pro-Trump pages. The Trump reelection campaign even used Facebook’s platform to run anti-TikTok ads earlier this summer.
But, Pappas surely knows all this about Facebook too. She certainly wasn’t expecting the company’s help when she sent that tweet. But it probably felt rather nice to call Facebook and Instagram out for its doublespeak.