If President Joe Biden gets a bill on his desk that could ban TikTok in the United States, he has said he will sign it.
There’s only one problem. Biden and his campaign use TikTok, and they have courted pro-Biden TikTokers in recent years to tout the achievements of his administration (and the coronavirus vaccine).
The argument against TikTok is sound despite the app’s popularity. ByteDance, the developer behind the popular app, is based in China and is at the mercy of the Chinese government. If China demands that TikTok turn over the data and personal information of Americans, people worry the company will do it.
Plus, a correlation exists between excessive social media use in teenagers and poor mental health, and TikTok contributes to that problem. The app has also been a source of pro-Osama bin Laden content, in case you needed another reason to oppose it.
Biden, his administration, and his campaign all use TikTok — and like collaborating with big-name TikTokers.
For example, Biden invited TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney to the White House last year to discuss transgender issues, prompting Mulvaney to make pro-Biden TikTok videos. They included one with over 1.2 million likes, where Mulvaney praised Biden and encouraged followers to vote.
The Biden administration has given other TikTokers access to the White House, hoping they will create pro-Biden content, Axios reported last year.
Most notably, that includes Harry Sisson, an anti-Trump and pro-Biden influencer with over 800,000 TikTok followers. His recent videos have repeatedly praised Biden’s State of the Union address and attacked Republican reactions to it.
Some examples of his spin include videos slamming Republicans for wearing Trump gear to the State of the Union, claiming that Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) lied in her State of the Union response, arguing that Biden wants to solve the southern border problem and Republicans don’t, and saying people loved Biden’s State of the Union address.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Plus, the Biden campaign has a TikTok account with over 200,000 followers. Instead of doing an interview at the Super Bowl this year, the president’s campaign released a TikTok video on Super Bowl Sunday where he said that Travis Kelce’s mother makes good chocolate chip cookies — because that’s something people need to know. The account has also clipped Trump rallies to attack the former president and featured clips of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) going after Trump on CNN. Riveting stuff.
So while Biden may be right that TikTok should go, he, his White House, and his campaign contribute to the problem as long as they keep using the platform, giving his supporters another reason to use it.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.