US incoming-President, Donald Trump said he has a “warm spot” for social media platform, TikTok especially after it helped him gain young voters by 34% during this year’s Presidential elections. He made the assertion when asked about the looming ban against the Chinese video app owned by ByteDance. “We’ll take a look at TikTok. I used TikTok very successfully in my campaign. I won youth by 30%. All republicans lose youth, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s changing. Last time we were down 30% with youth, this time we are up 35% and I use TikTok, so I can’t totally hate it. It was very effective,” explained Trump. TikTok’s fate in the US now lies on the hands of the Supreme Court, as it was given until 19 January 2025 to secure a non-Chinese buyer or face a total ban. The ultimatum comes after the Federal Appeals Court upheld the lower court judgment prohibiting the use of the app in that country, due to its alleged link to the Chinese government. Meanwhile, when asked about plans to protect TikTok against the ban once he’s in office, Trump responded by saying “I’m going to try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly.” The app is reportedly used by about 170 million active users in the US.
US President-elect acknowledges TikTok’s influence for his re-election
DIRCO slams Trump’s G20 boycott claim as “misleading and politically motivated”.
