Donald Trump has moved ahead with the executive order to ban TikTok and WeChat from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. The app will not be available to download or update come Sunday, but you can use it if it"s already downloaded on your device. Vanessa Pappas took to Twitter to invite Facebook and Instagram to present a united front against the ban, citing freedom of expression and due process of law.
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
Pappas, who recently became the interim CEO of TikTok after Kevin Mayer quit last month, was replying to Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that the US TikTok ban would be bad not only for Facebook or Instagram, but the internet in general.
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.
— 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. https://t.co/2tPPgAkI4K
We"ll have to wait and see if Zuckerberg owned Facebook and Instagram will publicly oppose the order. After all, it was he who reportedly persuaded the Trump administration to launch the attack on TikTok.