Trump made his first post on his verified account, which he opened last night, with a short video image. In the video, Trump said, "I'm proud to be here." The number of followers of Trump's account exceeded a million shortly after it was opened.
Trump's participation in TikTok, which is commented to have entered TikTok to reach young voters, especially in the presidential elections to be held in November, is also considered as a gain for the social media platform, which is discussed to be banned in the US Congress due to its Chinese owner.
TikTok has 170 million users in the US. Trump also wanted to shut down TikTok on national security grounds during his presidency, but was blocked by the federal court. Trump stated that he was against the bill that paved the way for the TikTok ban, which was passed by Congress this year on the grounds that it would anger young Americans.
On March 13, 2024, the House of Representatives passed the "Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Enemies Act" bill, which paved the way for the ban of TikTok in the country, claiming that it "poses a national security problem" and sent it to the Senate.
Supporters of the bill, which was adopted with the joint votes of Republicans and Democrats, argue that the information of American citizens obtained by the Beijing-based ByteDance company through TikTok was transmitted to the Chinese administration. TikTok's management, on the other hand, claims that these allegations do not reflect the truth and that they operate entirely according to American laws, just like other social media platforms in the US.
After the bill was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives, eyes are turned to the Senate, where the bill was sent. US President Joe Biden had announced that he would sign the bill if it came to his desk due to national security sensitivity.
