Technology

MAGA’s next wave of influencers saved TikTok

Published

11 months ago

April 29, 2025

MAGA’s next wave of influencers saved TikTok

The death knell for American TikTok should have been on March 13th, 2024, when Congress voted on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis to force its parent company to sell the app or face an outright ban. Rarely do you ever see Republicans and Democrats in agreement over anything, but both sides saw the app as a national security threat and worried that the Chinese government would use it to sow misinformation and secretly harvest its users’ personal data. After the bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden and negotiations with ByteDance dragged on, a ban seemed inevitable, even if his adversary Donald Trump won.

After all, MAGA had always been consistent about hating two things that happen to proliferate on TikTok: the Chinese Communist Party, whom they believed were secretly bankrolling the Bidens; and people who openly support Palestine. And in 2020, Trump signed an executive order attempting to ban TikTok, partially after seeing how TikTok was boosting support for his then-rival Joe Biden.

But months after the law officially kicked in, Trump sits in the Oval Office, TikTok remains online under Chinese ownership, and its fate hinges on whether the US and China can come to an agreement that would end an international trade war that’s already wiped out over $5 trillion. Trump has repeatedly extended a (dubiously legal) pause on enforcing the ban, which could well be pushed back even farther. And this time, you really can blame the kids for this one.

Every old elected official has an army of younger, ambitious staffers supporting them — drafting the bills, filling their schedules, and staying up late to run files up and down the halls. And the day that bill passed, the Republican Hill staffers were glued to the app, binging on aspirational content from right-wing TikTokers as their bosses railed about threats to national security next door. It was those younger, ambitious staffers who eventually got in Trump’s ear as he conducted his alternative media blitz to the White House.

It had taken a few years for them to come around, but young MAGA influencers were less inclined to see the app as a Chinese psy-ops machine. One of the final blows came when a 2022 Washington Post investigation revealed that Meta, a company they widely loathed for its content moderation policies and meddlesome CEO, had been paying a Republican comms firm called Targeted Victory to push a narrative tying TikTok to the CCP. (If there’s anything they hate more than Big Tech, it’s GOP establishment consultants working in cahoots with Big Tech.)

Any lingering hesitations on Trump’s part vanished weeks after the law’s passage. The New York Times reported in May of 2024 that TikTok’s internal metrics revealed users vastly preferred Trump over Biden: there had been 1.29 million pro-Trump posts versus 651,000 pro-Biden posts since November 2023.

“That was a big wake-up call for a lot of us, when we saw that Gen Z was really supportive of President Trump,” a Republican digital operative familiar with the campaign’s strategy told The Verge. Trump soon launched his own account, TikTokers soon started reposting his content, and as the operative put it: “His account just crushed.”

One reelection and 100 days later — after his collabs were served into the feeds of Logan Paul and Aiden Ross’s followers outside the right-wing media ecosystem, after viral trends turned his awkward old-man dances into NFL touchdown celebration fodder, and after he promised to keep TikTok alive in the US in defiance of the Republican olds — Trump’s TikTok presence is now his crucial lifeline to the zoomers, who would have dismissed him as a boomer if he hadn’t packaged his attacks on the press and dehumanization of undocumented immigrants into an account speaking in their language of deep-fried 4Chan memes, aggressive use of emoji in captions, AI-generated images of Trump heroically protecting the border, and pro-Trump content hopping on the latest trending songs. (But in a based and red-pilled way, not a cringe way).

While Congress was passing its TikTok ban, congressional staffers were glued to their feeds

Over its roughly one-year lifetime, according to journalist Kyle Tharp, the campaign account @TeamTrump has garnered 2.8 billion views, the most of any campaign or politician on the platform. In contrast, the Democrats’ TikTok account has roughly 670 million views, while @KamalaHQ, the official account of Kamala Harris’s campaign, has been inactive since December. The momentum has carried past the election, too: since January 1st, @TeamTrump has gained a staggering 230 million views and 16 million likes. That month, Trump posted an infographic on Truth Social showing his performance on the platform and asked: “Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?”

Trump is best known as an all-caps microblogger, and he’s several decades older than the vast majority of TikTok’s users. (Roughly 70 percent of American TikTok users are between 18 and 34.) But ever since the 1980s, Trump’s spent his entire adult life shamelessly feeding outrageous quotes and juicy, scandalous stories about himself to New York City tabloids and reality television, two voracious media ecosystems where all attention is good attention. Trump is basically doing the same thing in 2025, just with some technology involved. As a new media consultant might put it, he’s generating nonstop, attention-grabbing content for a social media platform — one that rewards creators who consistently upload content that viewers find engaging enough, whether out of entertainment or anger, to watch for more than two seconds. “TikTok is primarily an entertainment app,” noted the digital operative, “and our usage of it was just significantly more savvy than [the Democrats].”

Say what you will about geopolitical security and trade wars: if your goal is to convince enough Americans that you are a good president, it is absolutely worth keeping TikTok around for that reach alone. (Perhaps in a show of gratitude for swaying Trump and saving their company, TikTok sponsored a glitzy DC party on the eve of the inauguration in honor of MAGA’s biggest content creators.)

America has a long history of right-wing demagogues who grow their power via mass communication, from Father Coughlin on the radio in the 1930s, to Roger Ailes on cable television in the 2000s. The MAGA social media influencers are their digital descendants. They’re building a massive audience, holding their attention, and getting them to vote a certain way or boycott a certain thing — a political skill, no matter how you cut it, just like knocking on doors and kissing babies.

MAGA influencers see TikTok as a relatively stable platform for their work

Granted, they were not the first to the game: Barack Obama famously used Twitter to reach out to younger voters, raise hundreds of millions of dollars, and bypass traditional media. But the Democrats were never able to replicate his success, whereas the Republicans paid attention, studied his tactics, and launched training camps to create their own digital influencer army. By the time of the 2024 Republican primaries, their power was such that Ron DeSantis was actively trying to draft influencers to serve as his online surrogates, and Trump had stacked his war room with his own influencers, who ultimately persuaded him to get on TikTok.

MAGA influencers also view TikTok as a relatively reliable platform to publish pro-Trump content without fear that their accounts will get demonetized, restricted, or worse, deactivated. After the events of January 6th, the MAGA influencer-industrial complex faced an existential crisis when tech companies began clamping down on their accounts: AWS booted the right-wing social media network Parler from its servers, while Facebook and Twitter shut down the accounts of election-denying content creators and influencers — including the ones that belonged to the President of the United States — causing them to suddenly lose their massive follower counts, and in some cases, their livelihoods.

TikTok had adopted the industry’s content moderation best practices at the time, removing QAnon content, vaccine conspiracies, and covid misinformation. Its broader policies around violence and sexually suggestive words helped inspire the rise of self-censoring “algospeak.” But it escaped right-wing scrutiny at the time — there largely were no high-profile MAGA accounts, much less any as high-profile as the President, to deplatform.

This left the door open for pro-Trump influencers to have a fresh start on TikTok, albeit with tempered expectations. The benefits of reaching a new audience began to override suspicions of Chinese interference. “It was a slow burn,” Vish Burra, the executive secretary of the New York Young Republicans Club who’s previously served as a communications adviser for Matt Gaetz and George Santos, told The Verge. “People on the right, especially young people, were appreciative of TikTok for being around and not canceling people and still paying people out.” They also realized that TikTok content could be uploaded to other platforms, whether on purpose or whether it just happened naturally. All good viral TikToks eventually end up on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts — a trend the Trump campaign leaned into by reposting its favorite pro-Trump TikToks to its X account.

Many MAGA creators don’t believe that TikTok labels their political views (regressive as they may be) as hate speech violating its terms of service agreements. “Maybe they take your video down, but they don’t, like, crush your whole channel,” says Burra.

“These fucking people are worthless, and you can’t trust them”

Giving the MAGA influencers access to the app preserves their ability to push Trump’s message to a Gen Z audience, and in turn, gives him more momentum to steamroll over Republicans’ traditional third-rail issues: the China hawks, the pro-Israel officials who believe the app serves up too much pro-Palestine content, the evangelicals who think the app is turning the children into enbies, the business lobby terrified that a fight over an entertainment app for young people could prolong a trade war. It also fits into his biggest brand attribute: being good at deals. (In a Supreme Court filing opposing the ban, the administration bragged about Trump’s “consummate dealmaking expertise” and mentioned, without any specifics, that his first term was “highlighted by a series of policy triumphs achieved through historic deals.”)

None of this has translated into actual trust that TikTok will remain friendly, however. Due to its foreign ownership, MAGA users feel the algorithm and content moderation policies are somewhat insulated from American political changes. But given that whoever’s in the White House directly controls whether Google and Apple can keep it on their app stores, that insulation looks threadbare. And TikTok is still theoretically looking to sell to a US owner. Over the past several months, these users have watched tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos (who are far less legally vulnerable than TikTok) rapidly restructure their companies’ core values — cutting DEI programs, eliminating content moderation policies, even turning a legacy newspaper into a “free market” mouthpiece — hoping to appease Trump and get tariff exemptions in return. And if a tech CEO can turn MAGA overnight for business purposes, they believe, there’s nothing stopping them from flipping back if a Democrat becomes president.

“The moment a Democrat is in, these fucking people are worthless, and you can’t trust them,” Burra says. “[The CEOs] will just start fucking canceling people and tweaking algorithms once the Democrats come and say, ‘We’re gonna fucking regulate you if you don’t.’”

But TikTok posing a national security threat — the reason that MAGA initially wanted a ban — now seems to be a nonissue. Besides, Burra says, he and his peers grew up under the assumption that some mysterious entity somewhere was already spying on them: a corporation, the CIA, China, whatever. “Everyone has my data except me. At least can’t I enjoy it? Can’t I make some money?”

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Technology

Google Chrome is coming to Arm-powered Linux devices later this year

Published

9 hours ago

March 13, 2026

Press Room

Google Chrome is coming to Arm-powered Linux devices later this year

Why Arm + Linux now? In a blog post, Google only says that it “addresses the growing demand for a browsing experience that combines the benefits of the open-source Chromium project with the Google ecosystem of apps and features.” What we’re left wondering is whether Google’s talking about existing demand, or demand yet to come.

There’s certainly a growing demand for Linux. Some Verge editors have begun to ditch Windows with varying degrees of success. But those are our x86 desktops — there isn’t a lot of consumer-facing Linux on Arm chips, unless you count all the Linux-based Android phones out there. You can buy Linux on laptops from Dell, Lenovo, Framework, and such, but again, they use x86 chips. (And if you’re not a consumer, there’s already Chromium.)

But three of the companies that actually build Arm processors — Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Mediatek — may look to Linux as they try to compete with the Windows/Intel/AMD incumbents. Qualcomm told me in January that it sees “a lot of interest on other operating systems” beyond Windows for its PC-grade Arm chips. Nvidia could reveal its N1 and N1X processors for Arm laptops as soon as next week at its GTC 2026 developer conference.

While those Nvidia laptops might get announced with Windows, it wouldn’t be surprising if they targeted Linux too, once the basics like Chrome are sorted out. Google’s blog post specifically namedrops Nvidia’s DGX Spark as a target for Chrome — those $4,000+ beefy micro AI desktops, sold by a wide array of the company’s partners, also run Linux on Arm. Google says it’s putting Chrome into Nvidia’s package manager to make installation easier; everyone else will have to go to chrome.com/download when the browser arrives in Q2.

Technology

Tax scams through the years and what to know this year

Published

9 hours ago

March 13, 2026

Press Room

Tax scams through the years and what to know this year

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Tax scams rarely stay the same for long. Each filing season brings new tactics designed to trick taxpayers into revealing personal information or claiming refunds they are not entitled to receive. In recent years, fraud tied to unemployment systems, stimulus payments and identity theft caught many taxpayers by surprise. Some people did not discover the problem until their legitimate tax return was rejected, or unexpected tax forms arrived in the mail.

Two years later, promoters marketed confusing credits such as the Employee Retention Credit to businesses that did not qualify, collecting fees to file improper claims. By 2025, misleading guidance spread widely on social media, encouraging taxpayers to misuse forms like 4136 or modify wage information through consumer tax software.

Each of these scams relies on confusion around tax rules and filing systems. Understanding how they work can help you spot red flags before submitting your return this year.

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IRS WARNS TAXPAYERS OF NEW MAILING REFUND SCAM

Tax scams have evolved from unemployment fraud to social media “tax hacks,” with the IRS warning of new threats for the 2026 filing season. (Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images)

2021 tax scams: Unemployment fraud and stimulus payment theft

In 2021, identity theft linked to unemployment programs created widespread tax problems. Criminals used stolen Social Security numbers to file benefit claims through state systems. Because unemployment income is taxable, Form 1099-G notices were sent to victims for payments they never received. The IRS advised taxpayers not to report fraudulent income and to contact the issuing state agency to correct the records.

Stimulus payments were also targeted. Scammers filed early tax returns using stolen personal data to claim Recovery Rebate Credits or redirect refunds. When legitimate filers later submitted their returns, some were rejected because a return tied to their Social Security number had already been processed. Federal agencies, including the FBI, warned of high levels of unemployment fraud during this period. The IRS also encouraged taxpayers to sign up for an Identity Protection PIN, which adds an extra layer of verification when filing.

Worried your SSN may have been stolen? Many tax fraud cases begin with data pulled from breaches. You can run a free scan with our top Identity Theft Protection pick to check whether your information appears in known data-leak records. The scan looks for matches tied to your email address and shows the results in real time. See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.

2023 tax scam warning: Ghost preparers filing fraudulent returns

The IRS later flagged a rise in returns prepared by so-called ghost preparers. These individuals charge fees to prepare tax returns but refuse to sign them or include a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number. Under federal tax rules, anyone paid to prepare a return must sign it. When a preparer does not, the taxpayer, not the preparer, remains responsible for the filing.

In many flagged cases, ghost preparers inflated tax credits, fabricated income figures or altered withholding amounts to generate larger refunds. Some charged fees based on the size of the refund, which created an incentive to push questionable claims rather than follow tax rules.

2025 tax scams: Social media tax ‘hacks’ and improper filings

By 2025, misleading tax advice began circulating widely on short-form video platforms and social media. Some posts encouraged people to file Form 4136 to claim a fuel tax credit for gasoline used in personal vehicles. The IRS says this credit applies only to certain business and off-highway uses, not everyday driving. Filing the form improperly can trigger an IRS review.

Other posts instructed taxpayers to modify wage or withholding numbers inside consumer tax software to inflate refund amounts. The IRS has repeatedly warned that taxpayers remain responsible for the accuracy of their returns, regardless of where the advice originated. Filing incorrect income information or claiming unsupported credits can delay refunds and potentially lead to penalties.

ELON MUSK ALLEGES $50B IN FRAUD AT TREASURY AFTER JUDGE BLOCKS DOGE AUDIT

Identity theft and fraudulent tax filings remain top concerns for the Internal Revenue Service as criminals exploit confusion around credits and filing rules. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

2026 IRS warning: Tax scams expected this filing season

The IRS recently released its 2026 “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams it expects to circulate during the filing season. Phishing and text message scams remain among the most common threats. Scammers often impersonate the IRS or tax software companies and claim there is a refund issue or account problem in an attempt to collect Social Security numbers, bank details or login credentials.

The agency emphasizes that it does not initiate contact through email, text messages or social media to request sensitive information. The 2026 list also includes ghost preparers and misleading tax advice shared online, including content that pushes improper credit claims. Identity theft refund fraud remains part of the enforcement picture, with criminals filing returns using stolen data before legitimate taxpayers do.

How to protect yourself from tax scams

A few simple habits can reduce your risk during filing season.

1) Monitor your personal data and credit activity

Identity theft refund fraud remains a major concern. Criminals sometimes file tax returns using stolen personal information before the legitimate taxpayer submits theirs. Because many tax fraud cases begin with personal data exposed in breaches, keeping track of where your information appears online can help you catch warning signs earlier.

Identity theft services scan known data breach records for matches tied to your email address, Social Security number and other identifiers.

These services also monitor credit files across the three major U.S. credit bureaus and alert you to new accounts, hard inquiries or other changes to your credit report. If suspicious activity appears, members receive real-time alerts as soon as it is detected.

See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.

2) Work only with legitimate tax preparers

Anyone paid to prepare a tax return must sign it and include a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number. Avoid preparers who promise unusually large refunds or refuse to sign your return.

3) Ignore unexpected IRS messages

The IRS does not contact taxpayers through email, text messages or social media to request personal information. Messages claiming to be from the IRS asking for sensitive data are usually scams.

AVERAGE TAX REFUND TOPS $3,700 MIDWAY THROUGH FILING SEASON, TREASURY SAYS

From stimulus payment theft to ghost preparers, taxpayers face shifting fraud tactics each year during tax season. (John Moore/Getty Images)

4) File your return early

Identity thieves often attempt to file fraudulent tax returns before the real taxpayer does. Filing earlier in the season can reduce that risk.

5) Consider an IRS Identity Protection PIN

This six-digit code adds an extra layer of security to your tax return. Without it, criminals cannot file a return using your Social Security number.

What to do if someone files a tax return in your name

If the IRS rejects your return because one has already been filed using your Social Security number, you may need to complete IRS Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit. The IRS may also require identity verification before processing your return. In some cases, affected taxpayers must submit a paper return while the agency investigates the suspected fraud.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Tax scams change every year, but the pattern stays the same. Criminals look for confusion around tax rules, new programs or trending online advice and use that uncertainty to push fraudulent claims or steal personal information. The best protection is slowing down before you file. Verify tax advice through trusted sources such as the IRS, work only with legitimate tax preparers and keep a close eye on your personal data and credit activity. A little caution during filing season can help prevent months of headaches if your return gets flagged for fraud.

Have you ever received a suspicious tax message, questionable filing advice online or discovered a tax return filed in your name? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Gemini’s task automation is here and it’s wild

Published

21 hours ago

March 12, 2026

Press Room

Gemini’s task automation is here and it’s wild

A couple of weeks ago, Google and Samsung announced a big Gemini development coming to their newest devices: task automation. Starting with food delivery and rideshare apps, Gemini would be able to use certain apps on your behalf in a virtual window to take care of things like ordering dinner or getting a car to the airport — all based on simple prompts. You know, all the stuff that we’ve been promised for years AI assistants will be able to do. That feature wasn’t live when I first started testing the S26 Ultra, but it just arrived in beta as part of an update. And boy is it weird watching your phone use itself!

The first prompt I gave it was pretty simple: order an Uber to the airport. Gemini asked for clarification to determine which airport (a good question to ask!), then it went through a couple of steps on its own: adding the destination and opting to skip the step where you specify your airline, which doesn’t really matter at my local airport since it’s all in one terminal. As promised, the system stopped before the final step and prompted me to review the details before putting in the request for a car.

A vague and slightly more complicated request to order a coffee and a croissant required a little more input from me — and a lot of time on Gemini’s part scrolling through Starbucks’ hot drink options — but sure enough, it found the flat white on the menu. It also confronted a crucial decision: order the chocolate croissant warmed, or straight out of the pastry case? Without my input, it specified (correctly) that the pastry should be warmed. Pretty impressive for an assistant that just a year ago would argue with me over the details of a flight on my calendar.

I’ve got much more testing to do with this automation feature and I plan to spend the next few days throwing it some curveballs. Still, it’s impressive to see this feature out in the wild working as intended — so far, at least.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge