What Trump and Kamala Harris Said and What They Could Do About It

Top line

A federal judge heard oral arguments Monday on whether the federal government’s impending ban on TikTok is legal — something former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris likely won’t have much influence over if the law is upheld, even as Trump claims it will “save” the popular app.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event on September 13 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Key facts

TikTok went to court Monday to challenge the federal law, saying it violates the company’s First Amendment rights.

If the law is upheld, the company would either have to withdraw investment from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned from U.S. app stores.

TikTok and the federal government have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule on the legality of the TikTok ban by Dec. 6, giving the losing side time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Unless the ban is overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or the Supreme Court, it would go into effect on January 19, the day before the next president’s inauguration.

What did Kamala Harris say about the Tiktok ban?

Harris hasn’t spoken directly about the TikTok ban since it was passed — even as her campaign used TikTok trends to reach voters — but she has previously expressed concerns about national security issues surrounding the app while acknowledging its importance to users. In an interview with ABC News in March — after the bill banning the app was introduced but before it was signed — the vice president said the administration “does not intend to ban TikTok” and “that’s not the intent or purpose of this conversation at all,” even though that could be the result of the legislation. “We have to address the ownership and we have national security concerns about the ownership of TikTok, but we have no intention of banning TikTok,” Harris continued, acknowledging that the app is “a revenue generator for a lot of people.” “What it does in terms of allowing people to freely share information and have conversations is very important,” Harris said. Her campaign did not respond to Harris’ request for comment on her stance on the TikTok ban, which is already in effect, or whether she would enforce it as president.

What did Donald Trump say about the Tiktok ban?

Trump has shifted positions on the legality of TikTok over the years. The former president was initially a staunch supporter of banning TikTok, even signing an executive order as president in 2020 that would have functionally banned the app, but it was later blocked by a court. Trump has recently thrown his support behind TikTok, voicing opposition to the ban while he was in Congress and then joining the app in June. In a video posted on September 4, the former president declared, “For anyone who wants to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump.” “If you like TikTok, get out and vote for Trump,” Trump said, claiming his campaign is “breaking records” on the app. Trump’s sudden shift in favor of TikTok comes after reports of lobbying by billionaire Jeff Yass, whose investment firm owns a 15% stake in ByteDance and is the largest major donor to the conservative organization Club for Growth. Trump also complained that banning the app would strengthen Facebook’s position. Trump has slammed the Meta-owned social network, baselessly claiming it is biased against conservatives, as well as its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

What does Project 2025 say about banning TikTok?

While Trump has opposed banning TikTok, Project 2025 — a right-wing policy platform that outlines plans for the next conservative president — has called for “banning” the app. The draft policy, which was developed by conservative groups and has no formal ties to the Trump campaign, describes TikTok as a “tool of Chinese espionage,” claiming that “the ties between TikTok and the Chinese government are not loose or coincidental.” In a section on the Department of Commerce, Project 2025 calls for adding the app to the “Entity List,” which would prevent users from updating TikTok and “rapidly make (the app)

Can the next president prevent Tiktok from being banned?

That’s doubtful. If the ban is upheld by a court and TikTok doesn’t withdraw its investment from ByteDance, the ban would go into effect just before Inauguration Day, meaning the app would likely be removed from app stores before Trump or Harris take office. The next president could simply refuse to enforce the ban, which says the Justice Department can prosecute TikTok or any other company that hosts it — such as internet service providers or Apple and Google that host it in their app stores — if they refuse to comply. Violations could result in civil penalties of up to $5,000 per user who accessed or updated TikTok as a result of the violation. While Trump or Harris could simply say they’ll instruct the Justice Department not to enforce the law, with so much money at stake, legal experts cited by Politico suggested that TikTok and other companies likely wouldn’t want to take the risk of leaving their apps in app stores and simply hoping they don’t get prosecuted. “I think it would be crazy for the general counsel to sign off on (not enforcing the ban), because you’re still breaking the law, and Trump is incredibly capricious, so you just think, ‘Why would you do that?’” University of Minnesota law professor Alan Rozenshtein told Politico.

Do voters support a Tiktok ban?

Overall, no. Only 32% of U.S. adults support a ban on TikTok, according to a Pew Research poll conducted July 15-Aug. 4, down from 38% last fall and 50% in March 2023. Support for the law is higher among Republicans than Democrats, with 42% of Republicans saying they support banning the app (compared to 23% opposing it), while only 24% of Democrats support a ban and 34% oppose it.

A large number

22.1 million. That’s the approximate total number of TikTok users as of Monday who follow official accounts run by the Trump or Harris campaigns. Trump has 11.1 million followers on his personal account and 1.2 million on his campaign account, while Harris’ personal account has 5.4 million followers and 4.4 million follow her campaign.

What we don’t know

What evidence does the government have for wanting to ban TikTok? While the Biden administration argued in court that the app “poses national security threats of enormous depth and scope,” much of the evidence supporting that claim was redacted in court documents and will not be publicly disclosed. Forbes reported on a series of concerns about TikTok and its practices — including evidence that the company spies on journalists, tracks “sensitive” speech, promotes Chinese propaganda critical of U.S. politicians, and mishandles user data — but the government has not provided details about the intelligence it says poses a national security risk. TikTok has denied any wrongdoing — saying the surveillance of journalists was the work of a few isolated employees who have since been fired — and has said it has no ties to the Chinese government.

Key general information

Biden signed legislation targeting TikTok — and other companies tied to opposing governments — in April. The move followed efforts to remove the app from government-owned devices amid concerns about its ties to China and after Montana became the first state to ban the app at the state level. (The ban was later blocked in court.) The bill won broad bipartisan support even as most voters wanted TikTok to remain legal, clearing the House of Representatives by a vote of 352-65 and the Senate by 79 senators in favor and 18 against. TikTok filed a lawsuit shortly after the bill passed, alleging that the government had violated its First Amendment rights and created “a two-tiered speech regime with one set of rules for one named platform and a different set of rules for everyone else.” The lawsuit was joined with other lawsuits against the government over TikTok’s legislation, including one brought by TikTok creators.