It’s less than a day until the kickoff of Donald Trump’s second crack at the presidency, and the stories dominating the headlines ahead of the inauguration may offer a good glimpse into the weird (and thoroughly digital) forces and dynamics likely to shape his administration.
Over the weekend, the game of brinksmanship between the US government and TikTok came to a head, with the app’s parent company ByteDance electing to stop service in the country.
As a result, TikTok’s 170 million American users were greeted with a curiously worded popup message in place of their usual endlessly scrolling video feed. The message, which lauded Trump by name for his push to save TikTok, did what it was supposed to do. Less than a day later, the app was up and running again — on the incoming president’s assurance that he would push back the ban deadline — with a fresh message celebrating “President Trump's efforts” in unashamedly sycophantic terms.
Of course, the obvious irony is that Trump himself first launched efforts to ban TikTok back in 2020 on national security grounds. With the current bipartisan ban bill inked with Joe Biden’s signature, he clearly sees strategic value in striking a less hardline deal and gaining the favour of displaced TikTok users.
