FIRST ON FOX: Former President Trump’s Super PAC has launched a @MAGA TikTok — the first entity connected to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to join the video sharing social media platform, Fox News Digital has learned.
Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA Inc) has launched @MAGA, with officials connected to the PAC telling Fox News Digital TikTok will be yet another social media vehicle to distribute Trump campaign messaging, rapid response, and content supporting Trump’s 2024 election efforts.
“There’s millions of voters on TikTok, and @MAGA will deliver President Donald J. Trump’s pro-freedom, pro-America agenda every day with the facts and stories that matter,” MAGA Inc. CEO Taylor Budowich told Fox News Digital.
TikTok is facing a potential ban in the U.S. over concerns about its parent company, ByteDance, and ties to the Chinese Communist Party. President Biden signed into law a bill that would force a ban on the app in the U.S. if TikTok doesn’t find a non-Chinese-controlled owner. Trump himself came out against the potential ban, though he is not on the platform himself.
BIDEN CAMPAIGN TO STAY ON TIKTOK EVEN AFTER PRESIDENT SIGNS LAW TO FORCE SALE OR BAN APP IN US
“We aren’t trying to set policy, we are trying to win an election,” Budowich said. “Big Tech, including Google and Facebook, is actively interfering with our elections, that’s an unfortunate reality.”
A split photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida on November 15, 2022, and the TikTok logo shown on a mobile phone in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, Nov 29, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
But Budowich said they “will not cede any platform to Joe Biden and the Democrats who are trying to destroy our country.”
“We will ensure President Trump’s America First agenda will be brought to every corner of the internet and every precinct of this country,” Budowich said.
The PAC’s first TikToks highlight the economy under President Biden, and says if Trump is elected, there will be an economic “boom.” Another is aimed at Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and calls out his record and past support of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama.
MAGA Inc. is already active on X, previously known as Twitter. MAGA Inc. has used its @MAGAIncWarRoom account on the platform to post opposition research and rapid responses since the GOP primaries, and will continue through the general election.
Though the Biden White House is not on TikTok — the app is not permitted on government devices due to national security concerns — the Biden campaign has an account.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 5, 2024 in Miami, United States. (Song Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images)
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit earlier this week in federal court seeking to block a new U.S. law mandating that the social media platform be sold to a company without ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
TIKTOK SUES TO BLOCK US LAW REQUIRING SALE TO NON-CHINESE COMPANY
The bill, passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by Biden last month, forces ByteDance, which is based in China, to sell the app or be banned in the United States.
Lawmakers accuse the platform of being a risk to U.S. national security, collecting user data, and spreading propaganda.
TikTok’s lawsuit argues that such a divestiture cannot happen, noting the Chinese government’s own demands relating to TikTok.
The lawsuit argues that divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally…. There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
Critical to ByteDance’s argument is that the Chinese government “has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States.”
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
The lawsuit goes on to say that TikTok has already spent $2 billion on efforts to protect the data of American TikTok users, of which there are roughly 170 million.
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew signaled the legal battle late last month.
“Rest assured – we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted moments after Biden signed the bill. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again.”
Despite the new law, Biden’s campaign said they will stay on the video sharing platform.