White House opens TikTok account despite conflict with the Chinese-owned social network
While Trump’s initial stance was to ban the app, he joined TikTok during the campaign and has kept it going in his second term.
The White House launched an official TikTok account on Tuesday, less than a month before President Trump's deadline for the social media app, owned by China-based ByteDance, to find a new owner or face a US-wide ban.
“America, WE'RE BACK! How about, TikTok?” reads a message accompanying a 27-second video, the first post from the White House account on the popular app.
The account had around almost 50,000 followers within the first few hours of its launch.
While TikTok’s ultimate fate in the US is still unclear, the official White House account is a sign that the app could be here to stay.
It’s worth remembering that TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, and a federal law requiring its sale or banning for national security reasons was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20, but the Republican has postponed that process.
Experts say Trump has a soft spot for the popular app and credits it with helping him gain support among young voters when he defeated Kamala Harris.
Trump’s personal TikTok account has 110.1 million followers, and his last post was on Election Day November 5, 2024.
TikTok is a hugely popular social media app with 170 million users in the United States. ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, said in April that it had been in talks with the U.S. government to find a solution for the app. It added that any deal "will be subject to Chinese law approval."
In mid-June, Trump extended the deadline for the popular video-sharing app to find a non-Chinese buyer for a third time, or it would be banned in the United States.