Trump quickly gains three million followers after joining TikTok

June 3 :
Trump, a Republican running for president, gained three million followers on TikTok—a company he sought to ban as president citing national security concerns—less than 24 hours after signing up.

In his third run for president, the former president may be able to attract younger voters thanks to his June 1 decision to join the platform. In the run-up to the presidential election on November 5, he is neck and neck with Joe Biden, the incumbent Democratic candidate.

Even though 170 million Americans use TikTok—which Biden has signed a bill to prohibit—if its Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell it, Biden's campaign is already active on the platform with more than 340,000 followers.

Trump, whose handle is @realdonaldtrump, uploaded a launch video to his account on June 1st night. Trump was seen mingling with supporters at a UFC fight in Newark, New Jersey, in a video that has over 56 million views.

He promised to "use every tool available to speak directly with the American people..." according to Trump's tweet. The law that bans ByteDance until it sells TikTok by January of next year is being challenged in court by the company. On the basis of national security, the White House has stated its desire to have ownership based in China terminated.

TikTok has pledged to keep user data private and has taken strong precautions to prevent the sharing of user information with the Chinese authorities.

The courts rejected Trump's 2020 effort to prohibit TikTok while he was president. He voiced his concerns about the platform's impact on national security in March, while also acknowledging that a ban would have negative consequences for certain youths and would only serve to bolster Meta Platforms' Facebook—a product he has vocally opposed.

More than 7 million people follow Trump on his personal platform, Truth Social, where he publishes nearly every day, and 87 million people follow him on X, demonstrating his already robust social media presence.

To expedite its review of the objections to the new law, an appeals court in the United States established an expedited timeline last week. Following a joint request by the Justice Department, TikTok, ByteDance, and a number of TikTok content creators earlier this month, the case was scheduled for oral arguments in September by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.