Zuckerberg’s Trumpian bargain has a clear goal: get TikTok banned in the US

India’s June 29’s ban of Chinese apps, most prominently featuring fast growing TikTok, is the first public proof of Zuckerberg’s Trumpian bargain. The only reason that can explain why a nominally liberal plutocrat monopolist like Zuck has been cozying up to America’s most detested POTUS is quite clear: Facebook’s founder wants TikTok banned in the US.

To wit, a usually too-shy-for-political stances Zuck has been quite vocal denouncing China’s censorship for over a year: calling out TikTok specifically in his 2019 Georgetown talk,

and criticizing China’s censorship of the internet in May 2020.

What can explain these very strong stances, which Zuckerberg has all but eschewed for years, despite calls from all sectors of society ?

Zuckerberg is the spiritual son of John D Rockefeller, a dyed in the wool monopolist, a silicon robber baron, intent on getting his government to do what he cannot: ban a competitor from a major market, his own domestic US market.

Will he be successful ? Several members of Congress have been critical of Tik Tok and railing against Chinese Big Tech could prove a rare bipartisan “moment” in a fractured DC.