President Joe Biden joined in February, and then-former President Donald Trump joined in June. Vice President Kamala Harris signed on in July, followed by JD Vance and Tim Walz. Pete Buttigieg joined them on Wednesday.
Politicians, Republicans and Democrats, continue to flock to TikTok to appeal to young voters. Buttigieg opened an account Hours before his speech at the Democratic National Convention. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, describes himself in his bio as a “father, husband, veteran, public servant, Midwesterner.”
“You might know me from Fox News,” he joked first videobroke 1 million views in six hours. “Now I’m on TikTok, obviously.”
In recent years, TikTok has increasingly become a source of political information for young people, with some news and political influencers gaining massive followings on the app. Users have also turned to the platform to find real-time updates from citizen journalists documenting everything from protests natural disasters for conflict zones on the ground.
So far, the Trump and Harris campaigns (as well as the Biden campaign before he dropped out) have not hesitated to use trending topics, music, and memes as a way to connect with young voters.
Minnesota governor and Harris’ running mate Tim Walz joined the platform last week, kicking off a TikTok campaign with a dad joke. It has since gained 1.2 million followers.
“Hi everyone, Tim here at the dog park along the Mississippi with Scout making our first TikTok intro,” Walz said. video shows the family dog turned into a fan favorite political animal online. “Or as he and I call it, ‘TimTok.’ Is that right, Scout?
Politicians’ embrace of TikTok also comes at a time when the US government is embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with the platform.
Biden signed legislation to ban TikTok domestically unless it is sold by Chinese parent company ByteDance, demanding the platform. sue the federal government.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have long raised concerns about TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, as a potential national security threat. But in recent months, major political players have continued to build their profiles on the platform.
A TikTok spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That’s what Biden’s campaign said last year TikTok would not create an account. But the president joined the practice in February, a few months after signing the bill into law It can ban TikTok.
After Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee in July, his @kamalahq campaign account, converted from @bidenhq, became an instant viral success on TikTok with an organic crowd. Harris themed memes online.
A few days later, so did Harris has been activated her personal TikTok account has since gained over 4.6 million followers.
Over the past month, Harris’s campaign account has garnered millions of views With “brat bow” by CharliXCXtaking advantage of trending TikTok language and in general, does not take itself too seriously.
On her personal account, Harris posted everything from her visit to RuPaul’s Drag Race “Work Room” to her call asking Waltz to join her ticket.
A Harris campaign official said in a statement: “As the VP has said before, we do not want to ban TikTok. We would just like to see a change of ownership.”
Efforts to combat the popular video-sharing app have continued through multiple presidential administrations. While in office, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order in 2020 that would have banned TikTok unless it was stopped in court.
But the GOP nominee has appeared to flip-flop on his position over the years. Earlier this year, he made comments seems to have changed its position.
Since it is connected TikTokTrump has more than 10.5 million followers. He recently placed A clip of himself saying, “I’m going to save TikTok.”
His running mate, Vance, joined TikTok bandwagon, gaining over 439,000 followers in August. He used the platform to share videos from his time on the campaign trail.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If that happens, the pending ban could take years to take effect, with the earliest possible start being early next year, meaning TikTok will be here at least until the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, TikTok remains banned at the federal level, as well as on government-owned devices in dozens of states and lawmakers it continued to sound Supporting bipartisan legislation to force the sale of TikTok.
Democrats and Republicans continued to sue digital creators, including TikTok influencers, as they campaigned for the youth vote.
Dozens of influencers and more than 200 people attended the Republican National Convention last month content creators received credentials for this week’s Democratic National Convention.
The White House hosted 100 creatives for the first time earlier this month Creative Economy Conferencewhere the fast-growing content creation industry engages with influencers on issues facing them.