Despite Ban, Biden Campaign Will Keep Using TikTok

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Facts

  • Pres. Joe Biden’s re-election campaign says it will continue posting on TikTok despite the president signing a bill Wednesday that could ban the popular short-video app.1
  • Speaking to NBC News, a Biden campaign official said the 'fragmented media environment requires us to...meet voters where they are.' TikTok has come under scrutiny for being owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.2
  • The bill Biden signed would force ByteDance, which officials have accused of having ties to the Chinese government, to sell TikTok to an American company within the next nine months or face a ban in the US.3
  • The campaign, which joined TikTok in February, pledged to take 'enhanced security measures' while using the app that it has described as having 'legitimate national security concerns with respect to data integrity.'4
  • The account, @bidenhq, has roughly 306K followers, and is part of the campaign’s outreach to young voters.5

Sources: 1US News & World Report, 2NBC (a), 3New York Post, 4NBC (b) and 5Forbes.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Intercept. The Biden campaign's hypocrisy is galling. If TikTok is safe enough for it to be part of the president's attempt to accumulate crucial votes from younger citizens, it's safe enough for average Americans to use.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Fast Company. The bill Biden signed doesn't immediately ban TikTok. If everyone else is going to keep using it, the Biden campaign surely can continue doing so. The campaign is taking necessary precautions to keep the account safe.

Predictions