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Donald Trump Butts Heads With TikTok App In Combative Anti-TikTok Campaign
By Thanussha Priyah, 21 Jul 2020
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Image via Jeffery Edwards / Shutterstock.com
Donald Trump’s official Facebook and Instagram pages have put up adverts against the use of the TikTok app.
The anti-TikTok adverts were spotted by New York Times writer Taylor Lorenz, who shared the screenshots of the posts. One of the messages reads, “TikTok is spying on you.”
In another visual, TikTok was described to have been “caught red-handed monitoring what is on your phone’s clipboard.” Although this is true, the app said that it will remove the feature, known as the “anti-spam” measure, which is also used by other apps including LinkedIn.
The posts also added a link for his supporters to “ban TikTok.” The link, however, directs people to a survey with the options “yes” or “no” to the question of banning the app. The page then requests for supporters’ details to be added to Trump’s mailing list.
Trump could partly be targeting the app due to the recent involvement of users sabotaging his Tulsa rally. TikTokers had reserved seats to the event without the intention to attend it.
However, Trump’s team promoted that there were going to be around one million people who would be showing up at the rally. Unfortunately, there were only around 6,200 attendees in the end.
Trump now running anti-TikTok Facebook/Instagram ads accusing the company of spying on users pic.twitter.com/dfHuSVpciL
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) July 17, 2020
Trump’s ads encourage users to “sign a petition to BAN TikTok.” The “petition” just links to a “survey” where you input info to be added to his mailing list. These ads are basically stoking anti-TikTok/China sentiment and misleading users to boost Trump’s mailing list pic.twitter.com/FiY0dqr5YS
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) July 17, 2020
[via Dazed, cover image via Jeffery Edwards / Shutterstock.com]
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