Amid TikTok Controversy, Trump Gets Verified on Competitor Triller
President Donald Trump now has a verified account on TikTok competitor Triller, making it clearer that the president does not favor the ByteDance-owned video sharing app.
According to New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz, Trump's Triller account has about 3,500 followers and his introductory video has over 59,000 views. His Triller handle is @donaldjtrump.
The intro video features clips of the president. Trump also said in his first video, "I'm a professional at technology," and "nobody can do it like me."
There are two other videos on the Triller account as of Saturday afternoon, said The Verge. The clips were those of the president making a speech in which he says "Joe Biden has no clue," and clip mocking the presumptive Democratic nominee for presidency.
Reuters said in a report that Triller is one of the many other TikTok alternatives that saw a surge of downloads since Trump signed an executive order against TikTok. The August 6 order does not allow certain transactions with TikTok unless ByteDance divests it by the end of a 45-day period.
On Friday, Trump ordered ByteDance to divest the app's U.S. operations within 90 days.
The reason for this order is because many U.S. officials have been concerned with user security. They believe the users' information could be passed by the Chinese-owned app on to the Chinese government.
Trump's order made many of TikTok's young users worried. The video-sharing format of TikTok went viral among American teenagers for viral dance videos and other creative content.
ByteDance is already in talks to sell the U.S. operations of TikTok to Microsoft Corp. But this has still driven many competitors to try and woo the young userbase as there is still no final deal.
Both Trump's campaign team Triller has not yet responded to requests for comment on the matter.
Triller Thrives amid TikTok Controversy
Triller has been reaping the benefits of uncertainty over TikTok's potential ban.
In fact, Trill CEO Mike Lu said on Thursday that the company is "positioned to be a replacement for TikTok if they do get banned."
"Out of everyone in this space, we are the most adaptable," Lu said in a Los Angeles Times report. He also said the company is "grounded" in terms of being the next TikTok.
True enough, Triller really did see itself rise in popularity even before Trump set a clock on TikTok's U.S. operations. On August 1, the day after Trump first floated the notion of a TikTok ban, it jumped to the number one spot for iPhone downloads .
Some of TikTok's best known creators also said they would move to Triller.
For Triller co-owner Ryan Kavanaugh, their app is the "adult version" of TikTok. In a CNBC article, he was quoted saying, "We look at [TikTok] like a stepping stone to Triller."
Kavanaugh added that the contents of Triller are "a little more risqué" and meant for a slightly older audience.
He also said that the app's team is working hard to build out more features to their app. "We've been getting two hours of sleep a night, but I definitely can't complain," he said.
As of August 7, the app has been downloaded more than 250 million times all over the globe and has roughly 65 million active users, said a Triller spokersperson.
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