As a social media app that has been heavily portrayed by the US as a "national security threat", the fact that TikTok is being used by Biden's campaign highlights the big American lie about TikTok.
On February 11, Biden became one of the more than 1 billion users of TikTok, with the account "@bidenhq", operated by Biden's campaign, debuting its first video entitled "lol hey guys". It was a necessary move from a campaign standpoint that nonetheless prompted confusion among his fellow Americans who recall how close his administration veered toward banning the popular social media platform in the US.
It was just last March that Biden presented TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance with an ultimatum: divest ownership or face a nationwide ban. Less than a year later, ByteDance still own TikTok – and the ban threat has virtually dissipated.
Speaking to Newsweek, DeNora Getachew, CEO of youth-focused activist hub DoSomething.org, said that Biden is using TikTok to reach "some of the first generations to have been almost fully brought up in an environment dominated by smartphones, tablets and social media".
Moreover, Pew Research Center published a report on November 15
informing that more US adults are turning to TikTok for news, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites. In fact, the share of adults has more than quadrupled, from 3 percent in 2020 to 14 percent in 2023.
However, according to data provided to Newsweek by Kyra, a company that advises influencers on social media engagement, Biden's TikTok growth has been fairly pedestrian. In the 11 days to February 23, Biden gained around 180,000 TikTok followers. By TikTok standards, this is nothing to shout about.
According to Getachew, Biden is using TikTok as part of a strategy to rebuild the coalition of voters that gave him victory over Donald Trump in November 2020, which included young voters. Trump is the firm favorite to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
She added: "A Biden-Trump rematch appears imminent, and with the rising cost of living, affordable health care, and an uneasiness about whether President Joe Biden is paying attention to their concerns, of course, Biden wants to appease the same voting bloc that propelled him into the White House in 2020".
Getachew noted a TikTok trend where Generation Z users post about their economic anxieties and argued Biden joining the platform is an attempt to engage with these voters.
Of course, the Republicans are mad at him. Already, US Senator Marco Rubio and colleagues have sent a letter to Biden on February 20, calling on him to delete the TikTok account and "publicly acknowledge the national security threat posed by TikTok". Of course, he won't lah!
Still, the fact remains that Biden embracing TikTok demonstrates Washington's hypocrisy!
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