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Copyright © 2024 CGTN. 京ICP备20000184号
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466
U.S. flag is placed on a TikTok logo in this illustration taken March 20, 2024. /Reuters
Roughly a day since joining TikTok, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had attracted 3 million followers on the short video social media platform that he tried to ban as the U.S. president on national security grounds.
Trump posted a launch video on his account, @realdonaldtrump, on the night of June 1. The video, which had more than 56 million views, showed Trump greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey.
Trump said in a statement that he would "use every tool available to speak directly with the American people."
The decision to join the platform could help the former president reach younger voters in his third bid for the White House. He is in a close race with Democratic incumbent Joe Biden ahead of the November 5 presidential election.
Biden's election campaign is already on TikTok, with over 340,000 followers, although Biden has signed a bill that would ban the app, which is used by 170 million Americans, if its Chinese owner ByteDance fails to divest it.
Trump already has an active social media presence with more than 87 million followers on X and over 7 million followers on his own platform, Truth Social, where he posts almost daily.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., May 31, 2024. /Reuters
Trump said TikTok was a national security threat but also said a ban on the popular app would hurt some kids and only strengthen Meta Platforms' Facebook. "I'm not looking to make Facebook double the size," Trump told CNBC in March. "And if you ban TikTok, (then) Facebook and others, but mostly Facebook, will be a big beneficiary. And I think Facebook has been very dishonest."
Read more: TikTok, ByteDance sue U.S. government to block potential ban
(With input from Reuters)