Election campaign strategy
Trump joins Tiktok and gains over a million followers in a short time
Donald Trump is now on the social media platform TikTok
© IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
Donald Trump now also has a profile on the controversial social network Tiktok. Within a few hours, he gained 1.3 million followers. Even though he wanted to have the platform banned as US President.
During his presidency, Trump tried to ban Tiktok, but was thwarted by resistance from the courts. His successor, Joe Biden, signed a law in April that gives parent company ByteDance a deadline of January to sell Tiktok. Otherwise, it faces a ban. Tiktok has 170 million users in the US, about half the population. The app is suspected of espionage in numerous countries because of its proximity to the government in Beijing. The company and the Chinese authorities have repeatedly rejected these allegations.
First Donald Trump was against Tiktok, now he is part of it
In March, Trump railed against Tiktok and Facebook, calling them a risk to national security. However, a Tiktok ban would only play into Facebook’s hands. The parent company Meta blocked Trump’s access to Facebook and the photo platform Instagram after the riots in Washington on January 6, 2021, which is why he has an even worse opinion of this online network. Trump has 87 million followers on X and seven million on his own platform Truth Social.