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Editors at the Chinese state-affiliated media outlet, Xinhua, enjoyed the irony of watching Donald Trump and Joe Biden both turn to TikTok in the lead-up to the November elections, a social media platform both have tried to ban.
Announcing the launch of his TikTok account at the Superbowl in February, the Biden-Harris TikTok channel, run on behalf of the President, has already posted over 200 videos, amassed 5 million likes, and reaches hundreds of thousands of people.
Trump, who followed in March, has a following of 5.5 million, though has only posted a single video.
“We would be silly to write off any place where people are getting information about the president,” said Rob Flaherty, director of the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy and deputy manager of Biden’s reelection campaign.
“The campaign is playing on all fields… Being able to do outreach on multiple platforms and outlets is important and this is just one of many ways we’re going to reach out to voters. TikTok skews towards a younger audience,” reported POLITICO, citing an adviser to Trump’s campaign.
In 2020, then-President Trump banned US transactions with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, citing national security concerns. The order was blocked by a federal judge, but those security concerns remained.
This year, President Joe Biden said he would sign any TikTok ban presented to him. It arrived in the controversial foreign aid package that bundled together over $70 billion for weapons purchases for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, which also included a mandate forcing TikTok to divest from ByteDance, sell it to an American firm, or face a nationwide ban.
TikTok believes it has a strong case of First Amendment protections against such a ban, and plans to challenge allegations that the platform is used to spy on American citizens or influence their minds, as it saw the evidence presented for these allegations as insubstantial.
One-third of US adults, including over 60% of adults under 30 use TikTok, making it the most used social media platform on Earth, becoming a major driver of cultural narratives and a news source for many of these young people, with 4 out of 10 saying they get news “regularly” from the platform.
Xinhua used an editorial style to recount how Biden’s team hypocritically forged relationships with TikTok influencers in the 2020 election, citing a report by the Associated Press.
“The Biden campaign says that an increasingly fragmented modern media environment requires it to meet voters where they are, and that TikTok is one of many such places where would-be supporters see its content,” the state-affiliated outfit wrote. WaL
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