President Joe Biden wants voters to know he supports a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok if Bytedance, the Chinese company that owns the app, doesn’t sell to a U.S. owner.
In fact, Biden might even tell voters that — using TikTok.
For years, critics have warned TikTok is an unusually aggressive app when it comes to accessing user data. Because the company is based in China, all that information is theoretically accessible by the Chinese Communist Party. As tensions between Washington and Beijing grew, legislation was proposed to protect American consumers from the potential risks.
But that didn’t stop the Biden campaign from joining TikTok in February, part of its attempt to energize younger voters.
It was a different story last summer when campaign officials suggested joining TikTok was off the table because of national security concerns.
But now, the bidenhq TikTok regularly includes clips from Biden speeches, images of likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and short videos calling a sunglasses-wearing Biden ‘Dark Brandon.’ Both the president and Vice President Kamala Harris have delivered campaign-style videos to users promoting their reelection campaign.
One enthusiastic fan of the Biden campaign TikTok account: The Chinese Communist Party.
“As a social media app that has been heavily portrayed by the U.S. as a ‘national security threat,’ TikTok being used by Biden’s campaign highlights the unjust suppression of TikTok by American politicians and proves the hype nonsense,” an editorial in the party’s main newspaper said.
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill hope Biden’s campaign permanently ditches the short-video app.
“There was a time when your administration publicly stated the threat posed by TikTok,” wrote a group of Republicans led by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Texas Congressman Troy Nehls last month. “It is incredibly troubling, then, that you are now ignoring TikTok’s well-established national security risks…By downloading TikTok, you are setting a poor example for the American people while making them less safe for the bargain.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) also expressed major concerns about the Biden-Harris campaign joining TikTok, saying he was “a little worried about a mixed message.”
“It’s entirely hypocritical,” Digital Progress Institute President Joel Thayer told InsideSources. “On one end, you’re saying there’s all these issues with the app, there’s all this espionage that’s happening in the background…[but] if the president is using it, the assumption is that it’s actually okay. So which is it?”
Thayer said Biden undermined his own cybersecurity experts by joining TikTok. “[He] called on TikTok to be banned if ByteDance did not divest. Even if he isn’t breaking the law concerning TikTok on government devices, he’s certainly undermining it by using it for political reasons.”
Barely 15 months ago, Biden signed a law banning TikTok from government-owned devices.
“I think it speaks to a disconnect between the campaign side of the White House and their policy team,” Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies, told InsideSources. Leamer formerly served as a policy adviser to Federal Communication Commission Chair Ajit Pai. “This exercise looks like the policy and national security side of the White House is doing the homework articulating a path to mitigate the conduct problems of TikTok while allowing legal expressive content to continue.”
So, why would the Biden campaign join TikTok? Biden’s support among younger voters is sagging. Multiple polls show him trailing Trump among voters under 35.
“Campaigns are constantly trying to innovate their communications strategies and meet voters where they are,” said Gideon Cohn-Postar with Issue One. The bipartisan group promotes ethics reform and government transparency. “It’s possible that President Biden’s campaign team is hoping to connect with young voters via TikTok while his policy team at the White House is working to advance commonsense safeguards for social media platforms that protect our kids, our national security, and our democracy.”
Biden and Harris aren’t the only American politicians with a TikTok presence. Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) are active on the site, as is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Mich.) of the “Squad” maintain a TikTok presence.
But Biden’s decision to join TikTok may not lead to votes in November.
“The content showcases his age and lack of energy,” Stephen Kent, media director for the Consumer Choice Center, told InsideSources. “Biden is not going to get much mileage on TikTok in terms of winning over young people, and he should probably spend his limited time elsewhere.”
