US President Joe Biden arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, USA, on February 7, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
An official TikTok account was opened Sunday evening as part of President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. The account is notable because TikTok is currently banned on most U.S. government-issued devices.
The TikTok account with the username “@bidenhq” was first launched on Sunday during Lunar New Year celebrations in China and Super Bowl 58 in the United States
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In late 2022, Biden signed a law banning most federally owned devices from using TikTok. The provision was part of a massive omnibus spending bill and represented a major victory for China hawks in Congress at the time.
Several states and New York City also followed suit and banned TikTok on state-owned devices last year, citing a variety of security concerns.
TikTok’s parent company is China-based ByteDance. The company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, is Singaporean and a graduate of Harvard Business School.
One of TikTok’s largest outside investors is Susquehanna International Group. The company’s billionaire co-founder, Jeffrey Yass, has donated millions to lawmakers who want to prevent an outright ban on the app in the states.
Several US lawmakers have accused TikTok and other social media platforms of spreading content online that harms children’s mental health and failing to protect children online.
Biden campaign advisers told NBC News that the TikTok account is part of an effort to meet voters where they are.
The app remains essential for younger people, including those of voting age in the US. According to Pew Research data released in late 2023, about a third of 18- to 29-year-olds in the U.S. said they regularly get news on TikTok, a higher proportion than ever before.
Stricter regulation of social media companies, including TikTok, Meta, SnapDiscord and
The Biden White House has had a love-hate relationship with TikTok since Biden took office. On the one hand, the government openly recruited TikTok stars and content producers to help spread public messages and engage young people in civic events.
But as China-sceptic lawmakers stepped up their campaign against the company in recent years, the Biden White House quietly agreed with them, reportedly even going so far as to pressure ByteDance to sell TikTok.
—CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed reporting.
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2024-02-12 06:26:07
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