Will Biden signing a TikTok ban hurt him with young voters?

[Tekken_Guy]

Will Joe Biden signing a TikTok ban cost him re-election?

[Duke of York]

No as there are other social media platforms.

[DrScholl]

It most certainly would. Especially when you consider that a lot of young people make money off the app. Banning it would be viewed as some old person ruining everything and even apathetic young people would show up at the polls to make a point.

[President Johnson]

How many of these truly upset about that are even voting? And wouldn't Trump also support such a ban?

[Kevin Graham]

Almost certainly. I dont like Tiktok either I wish it been banned a while ago now. Im not sure what you guys are seeing that im not. I see countless people mindless scrolling through that app. This election is to important and Biden is polling to bad with young Americans to risk losing for something we can do next year or let Republicans do on they own. They not they ones trying to get young voters mobalized.

[Duke of York]

It most certainly would. Especially when you consider that a lot of young people make money off the app. Banning it would be viewed as some old person ruining everything and even apathetic young people would show up at the polls to make a point.

And what are they going go do vote for Trump and Republicans because they can’t make videos of a stupid app?

That’s pathetic.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I feel like there's an interesting paradox here.

I believe TikTok as a social media platform is uniquely bad for Biden - from my experience it tends to be the worst offender when it comes to misinformation, making people angry, and Biden is being attacked from both the right and left on there. If TikTok just never existed, things would probably be slightly better for Biden and there would be less people sucked into misinformation channels that make them not vote and stuff.

However, at this point, I think it's too close to the election and the impact of young people feel like Boomer overreaching or even trying to attack them outweighs the decrease in unfavorable content.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Almost certainly. I dont like Tiktok either I wish it been banned a while ago now. Im not sure what you guys are seeing that im not. I see countless people mindless scrolling through that app. This election is to important and Biden is polling to bad with young Americans to risk losing for something we can do next year or let Republicans do on they own. They not they ones trying to get young voters mobalized.

The thing is I worry banning TikTok will eventually become a partisan issue and therefore much harder to address. I guarantee if Republicans start to believe they benefit from TikTok spreading misinformation they will oppose a ban.

I think one thing that helps Biden is that the people who are truly addicted to TikTok are disproportionately less likely to vote anyways and banning it won't make them suddenly show up for Trump.

[Duke of York]

Almost certainly. I dont like Tiktok either I wish it been banned a while ago now. Im not sure what you guys are seeing that im not. I see countless people mindless scrolling through that app. This election is to important and Biden is polling to bad with young Americans to risk losing for something we can do next year or let Republicans do on they own. They not they ones trying to get young voters mobalized.

The thing is I worry banning TikTok will eventually become a partisan issue and therefore much harder to address. I guarantee if Republicans start to believe they benefit from TikTok spreading misinformation they will oppose a ban.

I think one thing that helps Biden is that the people who are truly addicted to TikTok are disproportionately less likely to vote anyways and banning it won't make them suddenly show up for Trump.

This I don't think a ban would be as big a deal as some think it would.

[Rhode Islander First, American Second]

A ton of the people who would be upset by this aren't old enough to vote, and adults have far bigger things to worry about.

[redjohn]

Yes, it's another nail in the coffin among younger voters. I think some people here underestimate (yes, underestimate) the degree to which a sizable chunk of younger voters who would normally be prime Democratic targets absolutely despise Biden due to rollout after rollout of laughable priorities and the appearance that he's a senile out-of-touch man.

I would guess it's 10-25% of younger liberals who feel this way about Biden. That's a small but important portion of the electorate that Biden either needs to legitimately campaign to or find votes elsewhere (again, it's much harder to flip the average conservative-leaning suburban moderate than the younger liberal-leaning voter who dislikes Biden but thinks Trump is the antichrist).

[The Economy is Getting Worse]

Housing mortgage rates and prices matter more, but yes Biden sounds insanely out of touch.

[jaichind]

How many of these truly upset about that are even voting? And wouldn't Trump also support such a ban?

If I had to bet, I think Trump would be against this.  It is unclear if TikTok is for Trump or Biden but if TikTok is banned then a lot more social media activity moves to Facebook and Youtube which Trump knows is against him.

[GeneralMacArthur]

It's not a ban.  It's a forced sale.  TikTok would still exist, it would just be owned by an American company.

Did you lose your mind when Instagram was purchased by Facebook?

Did you lose your mind when YouTube was purchased by Google?

Why would you lose your mind when TikTok is purchased by Amazon?

The CCP-owned corporation ByteDance is abusing its platform to fearmonger and lie to young people about a "TikTok ban" when actually, if this legislation passes, young people are very unlikely to notice any change whatsoever.  That's just more evidence for why we need to pass this legislation.

[GeneralMacArthur]

How many of these truly upset about that are even voting? And wouldn't Trump also support such a ban?

If I had to bet, I think Trump would be against this.  It is unclear if TikTok is for Trump or Biden but if TikTok is banned then a lot more social media activity moves to Facebook and Youtube which Trump knows is against him.

Trump used to be strongly in favor of a TikTok ban.  I remember it being a part of his rally speech, and the crowd would cheer!  It was a part of his rote monologue about how strong he was against China.

Now, he's totally flip-flopped, and he's strongly against a TikTok ban.  And the Republicans on this forum, including the ones who pretend to be free-thinking libertarians, are all for it, because they are malleable sheep who change their positions overnight to match whatever Trump's positions are.

Man, something must have happened for Trump to suddenly be in love with this Chinese company ByteDance, after being against it for so many years, and trying to ban it when he was POTUS.

I guess we'll never know!




...anyway, here's a totally unrelated story!

Jeff Yass, founder of the Susquehanna International Group, is the top American investor in TikTok and actively works to promote ByteDance's interests in America.  This is not news, here is a big article in the Wall Street Journal from last year about the subject.

Jeff Yass is also the 28th-richest man in America (right next to Sheldon Adelson's widow), worth $30 billion.  He's been a huge donor to Republicans and Republican orgs.  Except for one Republican.

Jeff Yass runs the Club For Growth, which has always been a NeverTrump-adjacent org.  In 2016, they launched a Super PAC that ran millions of dollars of anti-Trump ads.  This year, they did the same -- launched a Super PAC for the 2024 primary season where they spent nearly $10,000,000 running anti-Trump ads.  Because for pretty much the entirety of Trump's time on the national stage, Jeff Yass has not liked him, the Club For Growth has not liked him, and they've spent tens of millions of dollars opposing him.  Here is a WSJ profile of Yass that talks about his Never-Trump views.

But all of a sudden, last week, as this ByteDance-forced-sale legislation was gathering momentum in Congress, Jeff Yass and Trump became the best of friends!  To hear Trump tell the story, Yass personally called him and asked him to come speak at the Club For Growth annual meeting.  And Trump is suddenly talking about what a wonderful guy Yass is!  Man, something must have happened for these two guys who hated each other to suddenly become best friends.

I guess we'll just never know!

[heatcharger]

Thank you Jeff!

[E-Dawg]

It's not a ban.  It's a forced sale.  TikTok would still exist, it would just be owned by an American company.

Did you lose your mind when Instagram was purchased by Facebook?

Did you lose your mind when YouTube was purchased by Google?

Why would you lose your mind when TikTok is purchased by Amazon?

The CCP-owned corporation ByteDance is abusing its platform to fearmonger and lie to young people about a "TikTok ban" when actually, if this legislation passes, young people are very unlikely to notice any change whatsoever.  That's just more evidence for why we need to pass this legislation.

Do we know for sure that this bill would cause ByteDance to actually sell the company, or is it possible they will keep the company and take the loss of it being banned in the USA? I support the idea of forcing the sell if we can be certain it will work (as long as the bill wouldn't include provisions giving the government power to ban more websites in the future). But if the billl leads to ByteDance just taking the loss, that will mean the US government will ban a major social media platform, which is something that I would very much oppose.

[GeneralMacArthur]

It's not a ban.  It's a forced sale.  TikTok would still exist, it would just be owned by an American company.

Did you lose your mind when Instagram was purchased by Facebook?

Did you lose your mind when YouTube was purchased by Google?

Why would you lose your mind when TikTok is purchased by Amazon?

The CCP-owned corporation ByteDance is abusing its platform to fearmonger and lie to young people about a "TikTok ban" when actually, if this legislation passes, young people are very unlikely to notice any change whatsoever.  That's just more evidence for why we need to pass this legislation.

Do we know for sure that this bill would cause ByteDance to actually sell the company, or is it possible they will keep the company and take the loss of it being banned in the USA? I support the idea of forcing the sell if we can be certain it will work (as long as the bill wouldn't include provisions giving the government power to ban more websites in the future). But if the billl leads to ByteDance just taking the loss, that will mean the US government will ban a major social media platform, which is something that I would very much oppose.

I'd have to imagine American users are responsible for an enormous share, possibly even more than half, of TikTok's revenue.  TikTok America would be a tremendously valuable company, based on that.  If ByteDance is willing to lose tens of billions of dollars just to avoid letting another company run TikTok's American operations, that's very suspicious.  Unless the plan is to wait for Trump to get in office and then bribe him to revert the legislation.

[The Mikado]

Bytedance will 1000000000% sell TikTok if this bill passes. They may be blustering now but faced with "sell within the next six months or face banning" they will sell. Most users will notice very little disruption in the process.

[Dan the Roman]

It's not a ban.  It's a forced sale.  TikTok would still exist, it would just be owned by an American company.

Did you lose your mind when Instagram was purchased by Facebook?

Did you lose your mind when YouTube was purchased by Google?

Why would you lose your mind when TikTok is purchased by Amazon?

The CCP-owned corporation ByteDance is abusing its platform to fearmonger and lie to young people about a "TikTok ban" when actually, if this legislation passes, young people are very unlikely to notice any change whatsoever.  That's just more evidence for why we need to pass this legislation.

Do we know for sure that this bill would cause ByteDance to actually sell the company, or is it possible they will keep the company and take the loss of it being banned in the USA? I support the idea of forcing the sell if we can be certain it will work (as long as the bill wouldn't include provisions giving the government power to ban more websites in the future). But if the billl leads to ByteDance just taking the loss, that will mean the US government will ban a major social media platform, which is something that I would very much oppose.

Amazon or Microsoft would rapidly launch a copycat product. In fact, they would probably begin crash development as a contingency the moment this passes. So there would be a de facto tiktok app available after a ban, and the disruption would not last until the next election.

The bill is clever. It would take effect after the 2024 election, providing almost two years before any blowback can be felt, more than long enough for American products to steal market share.

These would have a global advantage given TikTok is already banned in India.

[DrScholl]

It most certainly would. Especially when you consider that a lot of young people make money off the app. Banning it would be viewed as some old person ruining everything and even apathetic young people would show up at the polls to make a point.

And what are they going go do vote for Trump and Republicans because they can’t make videos of a stupid app?

That’s pathetic.

They can refuse to vote or vote third party both of which would be beneficial to Republicans. It's not a stupid app to a lot of people, it's a platform for expression and even income.

[पिकाचु]

It's not a ban.  It's a forced sale.  TikTok would still exist, it would just be owned by an American company.

Did you lose your mind when Instagram was purchased by Facebook?

Did you lose your mind when YouTube was purchased by Google?

Why would you lose your mind when TikTok is purchased by Amazon?

The CCP-owned corporation ByteDance is abusing its platform to fearmonger and lie to young people about a "TikTok ban" when actually, if this legislation passes, young people are very unlikely to notice any change whatsoever.  That's just more evidence for why we need to pass this legislation.

Feel like in hindsight there’s a lot of regret in allowing these deals through, particularly FB/Insta.

[Anti-Penguin Tariff Voter]

The people who care the most about this are likely the kind of people who are the lowest propensity voters

[The Mikado]

I think people haven't fully internalized that when the House votes (Johnson's been signaling next week) this is going to be one of those 350-75 or so landslide bills. Basically every Republican you can think of has signed on. Katie Britt bashed Biden for not being quicker on banning TikTok in the State of the Union response.

If Bytedance wants to go to war after this bill passes and raise a furor with their userbase (which they've already started doing) it's going to call wrath down on a ton of Republicans too.

Anyway, I said before I'm sure Bytedance will sell Tiktok with this bill in place but let's take a minute and say "what if they didn't" and the ban went through.

Every ad on your television or Youtube or anywhere else you get ads will be "Tiktok is not banned in Canada. With NordVPN your Canadian account will be able to-" "Bonjour, mes amis! Atlas VPN will let you set your location to Gay Paris when you surf the net, allowing you back onto TikTok-" "I say, old chap, with Surfshark VPN you can have all the jolly good fun you want on TikTok UK!"

[The Economy is Getting Worse]

The people who care the most about this are likely the kind of people who are the lowest propensity voters

These are also the voters Biden is losing the most in polling.