Trump changes his stance on TikTok ban, claiming he will 'save' the platform if elected

Donald Trump has pledged to "save TikTok in America" in a pivot from his previous attempt to get the popular app banned during his presidency.

Taking to his own social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday (September 4), the Republican presidential nominee has claimed he's a "big star" on TikTok.

He also seemingly referenced the Biden administration signing a bill in April whereby TikTok's parent company are required to sell the app or the platform will be met with a US ban.

“For all of those who want to save TikTok in America, vote Trump," the 78-year-old wrote.

"The other side is closing it up. But I’m now a big star on TikTok...We’re not doing anything with TikTok, but the other side is going to close it up.”

This is in stark contrast to the comments he made back in 2020 on the matter, where he told reporters: "As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States."

Trump did attempt to get TikTok banned via an executive order but ultimately TikTok was able to overturn this in court.

However, TikTok was banned from government devices used by the Army and Navy in April last year over cybersecurity and privacy concerns from both Democrats and Republicans that the app shares US user data with the Chinese government - though this is something TikTok's parent company ByteDance has denied.

Earlier this year, Trump explained why he didn't want TikTok to be banned, and it's all to do with rival platform Facebook.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” the former president wrote on Truth Social back in March.

“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”

In June, Trump joined TikTok where he now has over 10m followers as he appears to be courting younger voters ahead of the US election in November.

New data from the Pew Research Center shows that public support for a TikTok ban continues to decline as 32 per cent of U.S. adults say they support the U.S. government banning TikTok, down from 50 per cent in March 2023.

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