Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined TikTok, the short video social media platform that is owned by China-based tech giant ByteDance and that he tried to ban as president, ahead of the US elections in November.
Politico, which first reported the news, said he posted a launch video on his account on Saturday night. The video showed Trump greeting fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey.
The account, President Donald J. Trump with the address @realdonaldtrump, had more than 450,000 followers by 0800 GMT.
ByteDance is challenging in courts a US law that came into effect in April requiring it to sell TikTok by next January or face a ban. The White House says it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.
TikTok has argued that it will not share US user data with the Chinese government and that it has taken substantial measures to protect the privacy of its users.
Trump’s attempt to ban TikTok in 2020 when he was president was blocked by the courts. He said in March that the platform was a national security threat but also that a ban on it would hurt some young people and only strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which he has strongly criticized.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign joined the app in February.

RIYADH: “Ignite the Ads,” a digital advertising event organized by the Digital Content Council and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Saudi Arabia, brought together startups, entrepreneurs and advertising professionals at Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District Conference Center from May 28 to 31.

The first two days of the conference were dedicated to businesses and advertising professionals to help them network and collaborate.

The last two days were open to all advertising professionals and focused on brand awareness, product and service education, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing.

Speakers included Lynnwood Bibbens, CEO of airport network ReachTV; Franklin Weil, CEO of e-commerce firm Myntr; Lujaen Alkanhal, head of social media at Saudi agency Extend | The Ad Network; and Ahmad Konash, CEO and co-founder of Saudi creative agency Onsor Mosha.

The conference covered a wide range of topics from female empowerment and advertising to Generation Z, to trust, data and artificial intelligence.

Sessions included “Decoding What Drives Gen Z and Alpha,” “The Power of True Stories in Creating Advertising Ideas,” “Women in Tech: Pioneering an Inclusive and Authentic Digital Frontier,” and “Transforming Perceptions of Branded Content in Saudi Arabia.”

In addition to panel discussions and keynote speeches, the conference featured various areas such as the Billboard Zone, which served as an exhibition place for businesses, and the Growth Zone, where those attending could interact with businesses to learn digital advertising skills.

The conference formed part of Saudi Arabia’s Ignite program that was launched in 2022 to foster digital content creation and production, new investments and support for next-generation connectivity and communications infrastructure.

Haytham Al-Ohali, vice minister at the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, said that the Ignite digital content program grew 70 percent year-on-year to SR20 billion in 2023.