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Barstool Sports founder and president Dave Portnoy said it’s hard to underestimate the importance of TikTok to small businesses and content creators as lawmakers mull next steps for the social media platform.
“I’m very concerned about how many people are making a living. It’s huge. You can’t underestimate that. And just to put it aside, and there are people who are investing in Meta writing the invoices, it’s all pretty confusing.” he said Tuesday on “The Will Cain Show.”
TikTok went down in the United States on Saturday night after the China-based app parent company ByteDance failed to sell the platform to an American buyer.
The TikTok ban message appears on a mobile screen with the TikTok logo on the tablet screen, as seen in this photo illustration. Taken in Brussels, Belgium, on January 19, 2025. (Jonathan Raa / Sipa USA)
President Donald Trump, who supported banning TikTok in 2020, signed an executive order on Monday on his first day in office, giving it a 75-day extension to continue operating in the United States.
House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., wrote a opinion piece explaining next steps for Tiktok.
SENATOR CALLS TIKTOK ‘A WEAPON,’ SAYS AMERICAN PEOPLE ‘NEED TO KNOW THE SCARY TRUTH’ ABOUT IT
“TikTok’s attempts to blame the government are misleading. The law is not a ban, and Congress gave TikTok an easy path to continue operating: sever ties with the Chinese government and the restrictions will be lifted immediately,” Moolenaar wrote . “When the law was signed into law last April, Congress gave ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, 270 days to sell its stake and relinquish control of the platform.”
“But even as American buyers have lined up to make an offer, ByteDance has refused to discuss the possibility of a sale. In a move that is raising eyebrows, the company appears willing to keep an eye on its alleged US$50 billion deal go up in flames instead of complying with the simple legal requirement to divest,” he continued.
In this illustration taken on January 6, 2020, a TikTok logo is seen displayed on a smartphone. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
In a video posted to YouTube, Portnoy said the debate over TikTok reminds him of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government told businesses not to open their doors because it had to “protect” them.
“There are so many creators, small businesses that have worked for years, for years to build their livelihoods and their careers on TikTok. Finally you succeed and the government says, boop! Sorry, cut off your legs. You’re done,” he said in the video.
Portnoy told Fox News host Will Cain that he doesn’t trust any social media and admitted he didn’t know much about how PCC uses the app to collect user information.
FILE – This Feb. 25, 2020, file photo shows the TikTok icon in New York. President Donald Trump will order China’s ByteDance to sell its hit video app TikTok due to national security concerns, according to reports Friday, July 31, 2020. “We’re looking at TikTok,” Trump told reporters Friday in the White House. “We may be banning TikTok.” (AP Photo/File) (AP Photo/File)
“I don’t have the Secret Service telling me everything they’re worried about. I understand misinformation to a certain extent. Espionage? I don’t know. I’m just a regular guy sitting here.” watching on tiktok and asking ‘what are they talking about?'” he explained.
Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend that he would like to see the The United States has a “joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the US obtains a 50% ownership in a joint venture established between the US and any purchase we choose.”
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He added that without the approval of the United States “there is no TikTok.” “With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, maybe trillions.”
