Donald Trump joins TikTok, app he once tried to ban as US President: Reports

Former US President Donald Trump has jumped onto the social media platform TikTok which he had tried to ban during his term as president over national security concerns, CNN reported.

TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance.

In his first post on the short video-based social media platform Trump on Saturday night (local time) posted a 13-second video after attending an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in Newark, New Jersey. The UFC CEO, Dana White, who is featured in the video introduces Trump on the social media platform, as per a CNN report.

In the video, Trump who is the Republican Party's Presidential candidate, addresses viewers directly and says it is an "honour" to have joined the app and his message was followed by a montage of cheering fans, according to the US broadcaster.

The launch on Tik Tok of the former US president comes days after he was convicted by a criminal court on all 34 counts for falsifying business records. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr who joined Tik Tok last week had posted on the social media platform videos from the New York courthouse.

The move is seen as an attempt by Trump to reach out to a wider audience, especially younger voters ahead of the presidential election in November where he is facing current US President and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

During his administration, Trump had issued an executive order to ban TikTok in the United States. However, the court halted the order. The Trump administration had warned that they will ban the app completely unless it was sold to an American company, over potential security and privacy threats.

"The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security," said the executive order which was signed by the former president in 2020. The action was taken over concerns that the Chinese government has accessed the personal data of TikTok's US users. ByteDance has denied collusion with the Chinese government.

However, Trump in March this year said that he opposes the ban on TikTok ban, adding that such a policy would only alienate young Americans and benefit Meta, CNN reported. Also in April this year, US President Joe Biden signed a bill that will ban Tik Tok from the US if its Chinese parent company Byte Dance does not divest from the app within nine months.