WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign on Monday defended his new TikTok account as a key way to broaden its appeal among young voters, even as his administration continued to raise concerns about whether the popular social media app would share user data with the Chinese communist party. government.
The campaign’s opening post questioned the president during Sunday’s Super Bowl — and referenced the latest political conspiracy theory surrounding pop superstar Taylor Swift.
“The President’s TikTok debut last night – with more than 5 million views and counting – is a testament positive to both our commitment and our success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented and increasingly personal media environment,” said Biden’s re-election. Deputy Campaign Manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement.
However, at the White House, national security spokesman John Kirby said: “There are still national security concerns about the use of TikTok on government devices and there is no change in our policy not to allow it.”
Kirby referred most questions about TikTok to the Biden campaign and dodged a more general question about whether it was wise to use the app at all. He said the potential security concerns “relate to concerns about data retention and potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors.”
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with that country’s authoritarian government. Biden signed legislation in 2022 banning the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security investigations.
In addition, the secretive and powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been reviewing the app for years, while trying unsuccessfully to force the TikTok-owned company to divest its parent company. The White House said Monday that the review was still ongoing.
With 150 million American users, TikTok is best known for its quick clips of viral dance routines. But Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., posted on
The Biden campaign said it had been thinking about setting up a TikTok account for months and had finally done so at the urging of youth activists and organizations, who said the app was key to reaching young voters.
The campaign said it uses a separate mobile phone to communicate on TikTok, to isolate use of the app from other workflows and communications, including emails. The campaign said it is taking additional steps but declined to name them due to security concerns.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she has no contact with the campaign and had no advance warning that the TikTok account was going live.