NEW DELHI: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump quickly received a million followers on TikTok within hours of joining the platform on Sunday. As president, Trump had attempted to ban the short video social media platform on national security grounds.
Trump’s decision to join TikTok aims to reach younger voters in his third bid for the White House.He faces a close race with Democratic incumbent Joe Biden ahead of the November 5 presidential elections.
Trump posted a launch video on his account @realdonaldtrump, on Saturday night. The video shows Trump greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, New Jersey.
Biden’s campaign is already active on TikTok eventhough Biden has signed a bill that would ban the app, used by 170 million Americans, if its Chinese owner ByteDance fails to divest it.
ByteDance is challenging in court the law requiring it to sell TikTok by next January or face a ban. The White House seeks to end Chinese-based ownership on national security grounds. TikTok argues it will not share US user data with the Chinese government and has taken measures to protect user privacy.
Trump’s 2020 attempt to ban TikTok was blocked by the courts. In March, he called the platform a national security threat but said a ban would hurt young people and strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which he has criticized.
Trump has a significant social media presence with over 87 million followers on X and more than 7 million followers on his platform, Truth Social.
Last week, a US appeals court established a fast-track schedule to review the legal challenges against the new law. The US Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia scheduled oral arguments for September. This decision came after TikTok, ByteDance, a group of TikTok content creators, and the justice department jointly requested a fast-tracked timeline earlier this month.
(With agency inputs)
Trump’s decision to join TikTok aims to reach younger voters in his third bid for the White House.He faces a close race with Democratic incumbent Joe Biden ahead of the November 5 presidential elections.
Trump posted a launch video on his account @realdonaldtrump, on Saturday night. The video shows Trump greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, New Jersey.
Biden’s campaign is already active on TikTok eventhough Biden has signed a bill that would ban the app, used by 170 million Americans, if its Chinese owner ByteDance fails to divest it.
ByteDance is challenging in court the law requiring it to sell TikTok by next January or face a ban. The White House seeks to end Chinese-based ownership on national security grounds. TikTok argues it will not share US user data with the Chinese government and has taken measures to protect user privacy.
Trump’s 2020 attempt to ban TikTok was blocked by the courts. In March, he called the platform a national security threat but said a ban would hurt young people and strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which he has criticized.
Trump has a significant social media presence with over 87 million followers on X and more than 7 million followers on his platform, Truth Social.
Last week, a US appeals court established a fast-track schedule to review the legal challenges against the new law. The US Court of Appeals for the district of Columbia scheduled oral arguments for September. This decision came after TikTok, ByteDance, a group of TikTok content creators, and the justice department jointly requested a fast-tracked timeline earlier this month.
(With agency inputs)
