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August 24, 2020The first alarm about US security threats from apps like Tik Tok was raised by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Georgetown students in Washington last fall.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg said the popular video-sharing app doesn't share Facebook's commitment to freedom of expression and poses a risk to American values.

These same speeches were also made at a White House dinner, also in late October, where the Facebook founder told President Trump that the rise of Chinese companies is a threat to American business and not to his society. According to an investigation published by the WSJ, the same arguments were used in meetings with other senators. It is not known how much these talks have influenced Trump's threats on the ban on the use of the app and on the executive order with which he requests the sale of the operations that ByteDance, owner of the app, owns in the US.

Facebook has also set up a advocacy group, called American Edge, which has begun running ads extolling US tech companies for their contributions to American economic power, national security, and cultural influence.