White House opens TikTok account despite upcoming ban
The White House has launched an official account on Chinese-owned TikTok less than a month before President Trump is set to ban the social media platform.
A 2024 data protection law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 of this year unless ByteDance, the app’s mother company, had sold off its U.S. operations.
Trump, who was an avid user of TikTok during his Presidential campaign, extended the deadline to early April, then to June 19, and then again to September 17.
The @WhiteHouse account has already garnered more than 80,000 followers since launching on Tuesday with a short video montage of the President captioned ” America we are BACK! What’s up TikTok?”.
Trump has previously called the spread of TikTok an ”national emergency” when he signed an executive order in 2020 imposing widespread sanctions on the app during his first Presidential term.
Trump stated that the app’s data collection ”threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees”.
He also criticized TikTok’s alleged censorship of politically sensitive content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Asked about the White House’s new decision to embrace the platform, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before”.
President Trump’s personal TikTok account @realdonaldtrump has been active since June 2024 and has more than 15 million followers.
By Rédaction Africanews
