White House Joins TikTok

The White House has officially joined TikTok, launching an account even as the fate of the popular app hangs in the balance. The move comes as Bytedance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, faces a looming Sept. 17 deadline to sell the app to a US buyer or be banned in the US, a requirement set in a law that passed with bipartisan support last year, per CNN. The legislation, crafted under the Biden administration, cited national security concerns over potential Chinese access to Americans' personal data. President Trump has repeatedly pushed back the ban's enforcement, keeping TikTok accessible for its estimated 170 million US users. The timing of these delays has coincided with broader US-China trade tensions, with both nations using the issue as a bargaining chip.

The White House TikTok account—which shared 10 videos in its first day, including a debut video of Trump promising to "deliver a better life" and declaring, "America we are BACK!"—has already drawn nearly 250,000 followers, though many videos have been "inundated with comments about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal," per the Daily Beast. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was "excited" to "communicate in a way no other administration has before," per Mashable. This marks the administration's first official account on the platform, though Trump and Biden previously maintained campaign profiles, despite voicing concerns about the app. This new move signals that, despite legal limbo and geopolitical friction, the app's ban is far from a done deal.