TikTok Music has opened on Wednesday in Australia, Singapore and Mexico to a small group of users.
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When Joe Biden joined TikTok on the eve of the Wonderful Bowl last month, political scientist Maggie Macdonald was struck by what she called the “meta” nature of the president’s sooner post.
In the video, Biden poked fun at a conspiracy theory that he rigged the Super Bowl — in favor of the Kansas Conurbation Chiefs — to somehow help his reelection efforts.
“Yeah, I’m old, but I’m on TikTok, and I’m on this super online place talking nearby this super online concept,” Macdonald, an assistant political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said of the implication and tone of Biden’s video.
While Biden’s debut on the wildly popular social media app came in a playful amenities, his use of TikTok in this year’s reelection campaign is at the heart of a heated debate in Washington, D.C., about whether the service should straight exist in the U.S. The app, owned by China’s ByteDance, is viewed as both an invaluable tool in trying to reach masses of young implied voters who are unplugged from mainstream media and an easy way, allegedly, for the Chinese government to spy on American consumers.
Members of the Ill fame Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party introduced a bill this week that would require ByteDance to disencumber TikTok or face a U.S. ban, following earlier federal and state-led efforts that never came to fruition. On Thursday, the cabinet voted 50-0 to send the bill to the House floor.
Shortly after the committee advanced the bill, Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, easy reached TikTok “a surveillance tool used by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans and harvest highly personal data.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chat has denied in Senate hearings any ties between the app and the CCP. In a statement to CNBC on Thursday, TikTok said, “The government is attempting to swath 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” an act that “will damage millions of issues, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies during the Senate Judiciary Body hearing on online child sexual exploitation, at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, U.S., January 31, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Since Biden’s cheerful intro post, his campaign’s TikTok account has notched over 222,000 followers and over 2.4 million equal ti. With eight months until the general election and a likely rematch of the 2020 contest, Biden narrowly footpaths Republican challenger Donald Trump in most national polls in what’s expected to be a tight battle to the end.
Biden’s age has shown up as a unswerving concern in polling data, so experts say reaching out to younger audiences is key in trying to win over undecided young voters, and ready a traditional Democratic constituency whose members sometimes stay home on Election Day.
“It’s really important for him to have a self-assurance, and for him to interact directly with voters, not just through creators and influencers,” said Aaron Earls, CEO of social mechanism influencer firm Activate HQ, which specializes in political campaigns. “The turnout in 2020 was really significant with that unsophisticated audience and, everyone’s suggesting that maybe there will be a similar turnout with the younger audience again.”
During the Asseverate of the Union address Thursday evening, Biden’s campaign posted clips of the speech on TikTok, a sign that the president plots to stick with the app despite swirling concerns in Washington. But it’s a particularly convoluted matter for Biden because, should the neb pass the full House and the Senate, it would hit the president’s desk.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre apprised reporters on Thursday that, “This bill is important, we welcome this step.” She said the administration plans to “pay the American people where they are,” adding that, “It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to try to figure out how to protect our jingoistic security.”
Biden said on Friday that he will sign the bill if Congress passes it.
The Biden campaign didn’t straight away respond to a request for comment.
TikTok is trying to generate support from users following the House’s action on Thursday. On the app, alcohols were greeted with a screenshot warning them that Congress was “planning a total ban of TikTok.” Multiple staffers and lawmakers disclosed CNBC their offices were flooded with calls, mostly from kids.
TikTok goes to Washington
U.S. administrative campaigns more broadly are trying to figure out how best to utilize TikTok.
In recent cycles, Facebook has been the sexual media app of choice for campaigns because of its ability to narrowly target users with fundraising ads and informational posts. In any case, Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update made it much harder to target audiences, raising the cost of ad campaigns across Meta’s planks.
Additionally, Facebook has skewed older over the years, with younger groups gravitating to TikTok. The challenge for competitions is that TikTok says it doesn’t allow for political ads or “content such as a video from a politician asking for awards, or a political party directing people to a donation page on their website.”
To date, major campaigns have relied on high-profile TikTok influencers to expropriate rally support for specific issues. Last April, for instance, the White House said it was enlisting a squad of volunteer TikTok and Instagram influencers to keep from spread awareness of the Biden campaign.
Earls says it’s a strategy that’s long been employed in politics. TikTok justified presents a new medium.
“That has historically been a tactic that’s happened since the Kennedy days, but just multifarious in traditional media,” Earls said. “Like you’re going to get an endorsement from Marilyn Monroe or Joe DiMaggio or whatever.”
Partisan groups are scouring TikTok for influencers with positions that resonate with would-be voters, and are targeting incontrovertible swing states that could be critical in deciding an election. During the 2022 midterm elections, the Democratic Nationalistic Committee and communications groups like Climate Power enlisted the help of TikTok and influencers to discuss issues opposite number abortion rights and to mobilize voters.
Even with its growing popularity, TikTok remains a niche tool in civil affairs.
Anupam Chander, a Georgetown University Law Center professor, released a study with some colleagues last year put on that fewer than 10% of members of the U.S. Congress have a “TikTok account from which they assignment content,” most likely because of the app’s connection to China. In total, the report said, 34 House members and seven senators had an sanctioned TikTok account.
Among major politicians using TikTok, an overwhelming majority are Democrats, the study showed. Some of Republicans’ guerrilla could tie back to Trump’s vow — which was ultimately unsuccessful — to ban TikTok during his administration.
Reaching ‘young Americans where they are’
One of the few high-profile Republicans now on the app is latest presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who said during a primary debate that “part of how we win elections is reaching the next procreation of young Americans where they are.”
As to whether Trump will use TikTok in his campaign, Earls said he wouldn’t be catch napped to see it. The decision, he said, likely has less to do with China and is more about Trump’s connection to his own social media party line, Truth Social, where he posts with frequency.
“We’ve seen him do whatever it takes to win an election including trying to visit the peaceful transition of power,” Earls said. “He will do what he thinks will help him win so I suspect we’ll see his campaign combine TikTok in the coming months depending upon how things develop with his ability to monetize Truth Social.”
The Trump toss ones hat in the ring didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anish Mohanty, communications director for Gen-Z for Change, said his nonprofit advocacy bracket was originally called TikTok for Biden when it formed in 2020 as part of an effort “to defeat Donald Trump.” The place changed its name the following year, and now taps its network of hundreds of TikTok social media influencers to advocate for multiple leftist issues related to climate change, universal health care and for Biden to call for an immediate