TikTok users review-bombed Trump's campaign app so hard that Apple had to reset its star-rating
- Angry TikTok users review-bombed Trump's official 2020 campaign app to the point where Apple had to reset the app's star rating, TechCrunch reports.
- The review-bombing — where users post a flood of negative reviews — started in July, but intensified in August around the time Trump signed an executive order banning US companies from doing business with TikTok's parent company, ByteDance.
- Apple reset the star rating on August 14, a day before Trump signed a second executive order stipulating TikTok sell off its US operations.
TikTok users left so many one-star reviews on Donald Trump's 2020 campaign app that Apple had to reset the app's rating, TechCrunch reports.
According to data from Sensor Tower the TikTok fans, apparently angry with Trump's attacks on the popular video-sharing platform, posted reviews saying the Trump 2020 app was buggy, glitchy, and that it stole personal information. The last complaint appears to be a satirical swipe at the Trump administration's claims TikTok relays US user data to the Chinese government.
The review-bombing protest seems to go back to July, when Bloomberg reported TikTok users — galvanized by popular user DeJuan Booker — started leaving negative reviews to protest the Trump administration's increasing hostility to the app. The app's number of one-star ratings jumped from 20,500 to 216,500 between July 7 to July 9.
The review-bombing picked up steam again around the time the US officially sanctioned TikTok with two executive orders. On August 7, Trump barred US companies from doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance on the grounds that it poses a national security threat. Trump followed this up with a second executive order on August 15, saying TikTok must sell off its US business.
Apple reset the Trump 2020 app's star rating on August 14, and it now stands at 3.8.
TikTok activists have been a thorn in the Trump 2020 campaign's side before. In June, TikTok users and K-Pop fans claimed to have tanked attendance at Trump's comeback Oklahoma rally by applying for tickets online then not showing up.