Even before last summer, Republicans and the Trump Administration had been looking for a reason to take on Chinese technology firms, conversations with nearly a dozen former administration officials show. But it was the moment when TikTok users disrupted a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma—when they used the platform to acquire free tickets to the event and give organizers a false hope for a big turnout—that pushed President Trump to act.
A months-long Forbesinvestigation into Trump and TikTok shows how Trump, who wouldn’t comment for the story, acted out of revenge and a desire to find a new campaign talking point, setting up a hastily conceived war that moved too quickly to succeed. “The thing was on a breakneck pace. It struck me as too fast,” says one former Trump Justice Department insider. You can read the investigation in full here. Additional revelations include:
- At the end of 2019, TikTok’s top executives considered disabling its For You feed during the U.S. presidential election, a drastic action illustrating how far internal talks went about limiting political content on the app.
- Conversations with 17 current and former TikTok employees portray the company’s workplace as one built on mistrust, secrecy and suspicion. “I’m not disputing that some employees believe that,” a TikTok spokesman says. “But I would dispute that is the widespread belief.”