Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday in a series of Instagram story posts that TikTok referring to Donald Trump as “President Trump” while thanking him for helping it restore service in the United States was “a choice,” considering he’s a private citizen and not yet president.
On Saturday, TikTok went dark after the Supreme Court upheld the app’s ban in the U.S., but it was back Sunday. When users opened it, a notification popped up thanking “President Trump” for his “efforts” in restoring TikTok. The social media platform also shared a separate statement on the matter, where it continued to refer to Trump as president of the U.S. — even though he doesn’t become the head of the country until Monday.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” the statement said. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
“It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” it added. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On her Instagram story, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that TikTok is “signaling that they have agreed to privately collaborate with Donald Trump and the Trump administration” by naming him in its notification.
“And for all of those concerns that people were saying that TikTok is going to be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese, understand they’re using it as a propaganda tool for the right,” she added.
The New York lawmaker spoke further on that point in another post, saying that every “mass social media platform in the United States has been taken over by the right wing.” Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly called Twitter; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; and Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, are set to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
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Ocasio-Cortez then ended with a warning to her followers.
“We are on the eve of an authoritarian administration,” she said. “This is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like.”