US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok on Sunday (February 11), publishing a 26-second video despite his administration’s crackdown on the Chinese-owned short-video platform due to supposed security concerns.
Biden’s account bio stated that he “grows the economy,” and the video was captioned “lol hey guys.”
The video shows Joe Biden playing a lighthearted, rapid-fire game with topics spanning from politics to the Super Bowl.
When asked if there was a covert plot to rig the Super Bowl so that Taylor Swift, who is presently dating Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, might utilize her celebrity to endorse Joe Biden, the Democratic leader embraced the conspiracy notion.
“I’d get in trouble if I told you,” Biden admitted.
Notably, the account is named Team Biden-Harris, a reference to the Democratic Party’s leadership team’s re-election campaign.
According to campaign strategists and media reports, the Biden team’s TikTok account will receive the same updates as its other social platforms, which include Threads, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Truth Social.
But…hypocrisy?
The Joe Biden campaign’s involvement with TikTok comes after his government banned the social media platform. on federal devices last year.
TikTok, which is controlled by Chinese firm ByteDance, has long been accused by US politicians of serving as a propaganda and espionage tool for Beijing.
While Republicans under previous President Donald Trump were the first to push for the app’s ban, Democrats have also strongly opposed its use, particularly among young people.
TikTok’s increasing popularity
TikTok, which has around 150 million American users (the overall US population is estimated to be around 332 million), has become increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults.
According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of 13 to 17-year-olds in the United States use TikTok, with 16% of all adolescents using the app on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, TikTok asserts that the “vast majority” of its users are 18 or older.
However, the app has become a target for politicians and state officials in the United States as a result of Chinese cybersecurity rules that allow President Xi Jinping’s government to access the company’s data.
Montana became the first state in the United States to completely ban the app in May of last year, with a Republican-controlled legislature.
The state stated that the Chinese government may obtain user information from TikTok, whose parent business, ByteDance, is situated in Beijing.
However, in December, a federal judge delayed the prohibition, which was set to go into force on January 1, 2024.
In the decision, District Judge Donald Molloy stated that the restriction “oversteps state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses”.
