WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Trump gets verified account U.S. President Donald Trump now has a verified account on TikTok competitor Triller, another sign of the White House’s disfavor toward the ByteDance-owned video-sharing app.
Triller is one of several TikTok alternatives that have experienced a surge of downloads since Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 6 that would prohibit certain transactions with TikTok unless ByteDance divests it within 45 days.
Trump on Friday ordered ByteDance to divest the U.S. operations of TikTok within 90 days.
TikTok is best known for viral dance videos that capture the American teenage zeitgeist, but U.S. officials have expressed concerns that user information could be passed by the Chinese-owned app on to authorities in Beijing. Trump gets verified account
ByteDance is already in talks to sell the North America, Australia and New Zealand operations of TikTok to Microsoft Corp. But with the company under a cloud, once-obscure competitors are stepping up their efforts to woo TikTok’s young userbase.
Trump’s Triller account had three short videos and a little more than 3,000 followers late on Saturday.
The Trump campaign and Triller did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Triller launched in 2015 – before TikTok, which launched in 2017. One of the co-owners of Triller Ryan Kavanaugh told CNBC that the app sees itself as “the adult version” of TikTok. Kavanaugh told CNBC that the app is “a little more risque” than TikTok. Triller is currently the #23 app on the App Store’s Photo and Video apps.
Gaining momentum against TikTok, the Triller app launched two creator houses in LA similar to TikTok’s Hype House, which was created last year so that famous TikTokers could live together to create viral moments.
Source Reuters
