- Donald Trump, the former president of the USA, uploaded a short video on TikTok and won over 2.1 million followers.
- The debate over the possible ban of the app has been a focal point during this electoral period. While Donald Trump changed his opinion from disapproval, Joe Biden remained objective.
Donald Trump, the GOP nominee who was convicted on multiple counts last week, has joined TikTok, a platform with great influence for younger candidates, with a 13-second video from a UFC event, winning over 2.1 million followers and 36 million views.
Donald Trump joined TikTok
To vie for the votes of younger generations, Donald Trump, who used to try to ban TikTok and cited it national security concerns, joined the app with a 13-second clip filmed at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, NJ. Within the 24 hours since posting, his official account has more than 2.1 million followers, with the video over 36 million views. Moreover, he also blamed Biden for banning TikTok and claimed the president is “doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant.”
While the majority of people who say they get their news from TikTok identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, there have been nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts as pro-Biden ones on the platform, according to the New York Times.
Also read: TikTok builds a separate US codebase to deal with the US ban
Also read: TikTok intends to implement worldwide workforce reductions
Joe Biden’s attitude towards the app
In April, President Biden signed a bill that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or outright ban the app. Nevertheless, knowing there is a large number of young people on the app, around six in ten U.S. adults under 30, he and his administration have been courting popular TikTok creators to soften what was a rough reaction to his move from young voters.
