US President Joe Biden’s campaign has joined TikTok, despite the social media platform being banned on most government phones due to security concerns.
The Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that he was concerned about Biden’s decision to join TikTok, which has been completely banned in the US state of Montana.
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Democratic Senator Mark Warner said he felt the social media platform should be completely banned from the US, following in the footsteps of India which banned the platform in 2020.
The ban of TikTok in India came amidst hundreds of other apps being prohibited following a rise in geopolitical tensions between the states, with the Indian government claiming that China was harvesting user data via the apps.
As research and analysis company GlobalData explains in its Thematic Research: Social Media 2023 report, the ban has paved the way for the success of Indian apps, such as Josh, a short-form video platform that had over 150 million users in 2022.
“I’m a little worried about a mixed message,” Warner said about the President joining the social media app.
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By GlobalDataByteDance-owned TikTok has been under fire for years from the West over concerns for national security and privacy concerns from Chinese spying.
TikTok has continued to refute all allegations, in previous court documents the social media platform claimed that it had not “shared, and would not share, US user data with the Chinese government, and has taken substantial measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok users.”
John Kirby, White House spokesperson, said that nothing had changed about the national security concerns of TikTok and confirmed the app is still banned on government devices.
The move from Biden’s campaign comes as they try to reach more young people ahead of the November election in the US. In Biden’s last election, an unprecedented amount of young people turned out to vote to help push him to victory.
A 2022 Pew Research Survey, cited by GlobalData, found that the same research also found that two-thirds of US teens use TikTok, and approximately 60% use Instagram and Snapchat.
