TikTok’s super keen to highlight its value to Americans, as a means to ensure that it remains in President Trump’s good books, which, hopefully, will allow it to keep operating in the U.S., its biggest usage region.
In line with this, TikTok has announced that it’s supporting a major U.S. concert event for Veterans Day, to honor American military veterans, with TikTok to host the exclusive live-stream of the celebration.
So this coming Friday, you’ll be able to tune in on TikTok to catch the event.
As explained by TikTok:
“This Veterans Day, Ford Motor Company, Blue Star Families and TikTok are coming together to host a first of its kind, livestreamed military benefit concert in honor of the military community. ‘Proud to Honor: Celebrating America’s Heroes’ is designed to support service members and veterans, and the families who serve alongside them.”
As noted, the event will be streamed exclusively on TikTok, and will feature a range of well-known musicians and performers, who are all taking part to help raise funds for Veterans Service Organizations.
“Designed to be social-first, TikTok creators will also be promoting and attending the event, bringing unparalleled reach and awareness for the Veterans Service Organizations benefiting from funds raised during the event.”
TikTok says that it’s also adding a new donation sticker for Veterans Service Organizations, which people can add to their content in the lead-up to, and following the event.
“Viewers can make donations directly on TikTok by clicking the on-screen ‘donation sticker’ to support the work of Blue Star Families as well as Ford’s other Proud to Honor partners who support military and veteran families.”
It’s a worthy initiative, no doubt, but it is interesting to see TikTok looking to further embed itself within American culture, via initiatives that align with the Trump Administration’s key areas of focus.
Of course, TikTok has been working to further ingratiate itself with U.S. politicians for years, as it seeks to counter concerns that it could be used by the Chinese government as a spy and/or propaganda tool.
On this front, TikTok has shipped platform influencers to Washington to lobby politicians, has called on its users to voice their support for the app to their local representatives, and has published data on the positive impact that it’s had on the U.S. economy.
The accumulation of these efforts will ideally help TikTok better ingratiate itself with lawmakers and gain more support, in order to help it oppose the Senate-approved sell-off bill, which has been extended four times now by President Trump.
Trump himself has said that he has a “warm spot” in his heart for the app, because he’s one of the most followed people on it. And with that in mind, maybe it is worth TikTok highlighting these elements, which support Trump’s America-first approach, in order to maintain and reinforce his support.
Though it’s more likely that the deal now hinges on economic sanctions, and an arrangement to ease U.S. pressure on China in key areas of contention. One of those could be China’s ownership claim over Taiwan, which the U.S. has long opposed. Reports have suggested that for China to approve a TikTok deal, the U.S. will need to step back from this.
Which is amazing to consider, that TikTok could be at the center of an international conflict. But that’s where we’re at, and with this in mind, TikTok’s keen to keep highlighting its value to Americans.
