Why is Joe Biden on TikTok when his own government banned the app on federal devices?

Since then, the feed has published roughly two videos a day, some of them showcasing rival Donald Trump’s political positions and gaffes, others amplifying Democratic talking points or just showing that Biden can laugh at himself. (The latest, from Feb. 18, has him reacting good-naturedly to a clip from talk-show host Jimmy Fallon suggesting he remembers the Roman Empire.)

An image from Biden’s first TikTok post shows him reacting sarcastically to the idea that the White House rigged the Super Bowl. PHOTO BY TIKTOK

Why join now?

With the U.S. presidential election less than nine months away, the Biden campaign is starting to look for more ways to reach more voters, and especially younger voters. And while a quarter of America’s 170 million TikTok users are aged 10 to 19 (the voting age is 18), another 22 per cent are 20 to 29, as compared to only 11 per cent who are 50 and older.

Is it working for him?

Not everyone thinks so. Daily Show commentator Jon Stewart showed Biden’s first post on his program before asking: “How do you go on TikTok and end up looking older?”

Why is his joining the platform controversial?

In recent years, there has been growing concern that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, could be a security risk to users, especially those in government. A year ago, Ottawa banned the app from all government mobile devices in this country.

The U.S. government had taken a similar stance several months earlier, with a senior member of the Federal Communications Commission calling TikTok “a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.” Although it is prohibited on government devices, a more widespread ban has not yet happened.

Now, a group of 18 Republican politicians have drafted a letter urging Biden to stop using TikTok, saying his campaign was “ignoring TikTok’s well-established national security risks” and asking: “How can the federal government warn Americans about the risks of this app if the Commander in Chief uses it?”

Neither the White House nor the Biden campaign has yet responded to the letter. Presumably, Biden’s use is not technically in contravention of the ban as long as the device used to post messages is not federally owned. And politicians of both stripes have registered accounts, posted clips that can be shared across social media platforms, or partnered with content creators who are already on TikTok.

Also, the pushback is not limited to Republicans, either. The day after Biden’s first TikTok message was posted, the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee said he was concerned by the decision to use the platform.

“I think that we still need to find a way to follow India, which has prohibited TikTok,” Senator Mark Warner said at the time. “I’m a little worried about a mixed message.”

What does the public think about TikTok?

A new poll commissioned by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs found that 31 per cent of U.S. adults would favour a nationwide ban on TikTok use, while 35 per cent oppose such a move. A further 31 per cent said they neither favour nor oppose a ban.

Not surprisingly, a ban is least desired by those who use the platform regularly, with 73 per cent of daily users saying they oppose it. And about a quarter of daily users said they were “extremely or very concerned” about the idea of the Chinese government obtaining their personal information, compared to about half of U.S. adults overall.

For its part, TikTok says it has never shared data with the Chinese government, and that it would not so if asked. It says new user data on American accounts – including, presumably, that of the Biden campaign – is being stored on servers maintained by Austin-based Oracle software.

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