Peter Doocy issued a surprising warning to Donald Trump about the TikTok ban

With nearly 1.6 billion active monthly users, TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

But Joe Biden signed a bill into law that will ban TikTok in the U.S. the day before he leaves office.

And Peter Doocy issued a surprising warning to Donald Trump about the TikTok ban.

Social media platforms are wildly popular in America.

According to recent estimates, there are 239 million active social media users in the United States.

This means 70.1% of Americans use one social media platform or another.

First launched in 2016, TikTok has rapidly grown in popularity in the U.S. and around the world.

Reports found that TikTok has roughly one billion unique monthly visits to its platform.

Even though adults use TikTok, it’s very popular amongst the younger, Gen Z crowd.

TikTok’s appeal to younger audiences has elevated it above Instagram in terms of popularity for Gen Z users.

Roughly 16.75% of all TikTok visits come from within the United States.

This is nearly three times more visits from the U.S. than any other nation.

But TikTok could soon be banned in the United States without action from the Supreme Court or, once he takes office, President-elect Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law.

The law requires TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the platform to an American company or be banned in the United States.

Supporters of banning TikTok are concerned about the popular app being owned by the Chinese.

“TikTok extended the Chinese Communist Party’s power and influence into our own nation, right under our noses,” Marco Rubio wrote in an April press release. “I have been raising concerns about TikTok since 2019, so this new law forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok is a huge step toward confronting Beijing’s malign influence,” he continued. “It’s official: Communist China is on the clock.”

TikTok filed a challenge to the law on the grounds that it violates its free speech rights under the First Amendment.

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law, finding that the government’s national security justifications, including concerns that the Chinese government could access data about American users and potentially manipulate content on the app, were legitimate,” NBC reported.

However, on Wednesday the Supreme Court agreed to take up the TikTok case and will hear oral arguments on January 10.

While Trump himself previously supported such a ban, he’s seemingly softened that position in recent months and now seems to be against banning the app.

“We will take a look at TikTok,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago recently. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points, there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with that – TikTok had an impact.” 

But Fox News’ Peter Doocy has a warning for Trump about changing his stance on a TikTok ban.

On Tuesday, Doocy appeared on Fox & Friends where he warned Trump that reversing his position would not “sit well” with many of his fellow Republicans.

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt said Trump pointed out that China has several ways of spying on Americans, such as Amazon purchases and manufactured devices.

“Yes to all of that,” Doocy replied. 

He then gave his warning to Trump.

“And all of that to say it would not sit well with a lot of elected Republicans if Trump reverses on TikTok, forcing TikTok to be sold,” Doocy said. “But what are they going to say about it publicly?” he continued. “Because everything else they’ve said over the last couple of months, since the election, is that he was just elected with a mandate and we need to at least give him a chance to do things the way that he wants to do.”

Doocy brought up Trump’s friendship with X owner Elon Musk and how it could impact his decision.

“TikTok is a main competitor to X, owned by Trump’s new pal, Elon Musk,” he said. “Trump really seems to value Musk’s opinion on things. We don’t know what kind of influence Musk has here.”

TikTok is coming up on a deadline of January 19.

The Supreme Court will begin oral arguments on January 10.

Only time will tell if TikTok survives the ban or if the nanny state politicians end it.