Political campaign tactics - Trump signs up for Tiktok and amasses over a million users in a brief period.
TikTok, the preferred social media app among youngsters, could potentially help the Republican presidential candidate connect with a massive audience. The app is already being utilized by the Biden campaign.
During Trump's presidency, there were attempts to ban TikTok, but legal barriers prevented the move. Later, Biden signed a law in April that mandated ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell the app by January. If they fail to do so, TikTok would be banned. The app boasts 170 million users in the US, a considerable portion of the overall population. Despite suspicions of espionage in various countries given its ties with the Chinese government, both ByteDance and Chinese authorities have reiterated their denials.
Trump's conflicting views on TikTok and his alternative, Truth Social
In March, Trump criticized TikTok and Facebook, labeling them potential risks to national security. However, a TikTok ban would advantage Facebook. This was the driving force behind Trump's harsh criticism of Facebook. Meta previously suspended Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram following the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington, D.C. Currently, Trump has 87 million followers on TikTok and seven million on his own platform, Truth Social.
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Despite Trump's critical views towards TikTok and Facebook, he managed to amass over a million users on Tiktok during his presidency. Contrastingly, after being banned from Facebook and Instagram, Trump turned to his own alternative platform, Truth Social, accumulating seven million followers. Interestingly, Joe Biden's campaign is also using Tiktok for political campaign tactics, although Biden later signed a law mandating ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to sell the app by January.
