Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster on Wednesday echoes former President Donald Trump's views on the TikTok ban debacle.
What Happened: Munster took to X, formerly Twitter, and said, "TikTok ban took another step forward today with the House passing a bill to requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok within the year or be banned in the U.S."
He went on to say that the bill faces tough prospects as it proceeds to the Senate, where no corresponding bill exists, leaving the outcome "unknown."
"I put [chances] of a TikTok ban at 25% given Bytedance will challenge the legality which will be drawn out throughout the election as a hot topic. If Trump wins, he would likely try to reinstate TikTok," Munster predicted.
He then echoed Trump's earlier statements, saying that if TikTok indeed got banned in the U.S., Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms Inc. META stands to gain significantly. This is because users will turn to Instagram Reels to fulfill their TikTok cravings.
The bill in question, if approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden, who has previously supported the bill, would compel ByteDance, the parent company of the short-form video hosting service to sell TikTok within five months.
If they fail to do so, the TikTok app will be removed from app stores across all platforms, impacting about 150 million users in the country.
Why It's Important: Trump who has previously supported banning TikTok, last week said,”If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” adding, “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
During a phone interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, Trump reiterated his disapproval of a TikTok ban, noting Facebook’s potential advantage. "There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like is without TikTok you can make Facebook bigger. And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.”
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