The Biden administration's willingness to relent to a Trump administration goal to ban TikTok is a potential problem for Democrats who have used the platform for political gain.
"Ditching something that has proven to be incredibly helpful to winning elections is like shooting yourself in the foot," Gen-Z for Change (formerly TikTok for Biden) founder Aidan Kohn-Murphy, 19, told The Washington Post.
Democrats have used TikTok – almost exclusively compared to Republicans, according to the Post – to reach young voters and spread their political messages in a viral, new-age way that inspires the young to vote the way they want them too.
"For any campaign that wants to get their message out to young people, I don't think you can do that without TikTok," Voters of Tomorrow Director Victor Shi told the Post.
The White House has bought in, providing a briefing room for TikTok influencers to share their messaging to the young.
The White House has elevated Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty to a level equal to the White House press secretary, "because the president values our digital operation at a similar level as our traditional communications and press departments," a source told the Post.
But that flies in the face of the reality that TikTok parent ByteDance is a Chinese-owned company that is required to submit to the Chinese Communist Party's forced technology transfer, potentially giving China private and sensitive data that could compromise U.S. national security.
A Biden administration plan, through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is in the works to cut that cord, working to force the TikTok owners to divest from the app, so that it can continue to be used throughout the U.S. to reach young voters.
Despite the push away, Democrats are seeking to get closer to an effective political tool.
In the 2022 midterm, 1 in 3 Democrat campaigns maintained a TikTok presence, according to the Post.
Since the start of 2023, nearly two dozen Democrats have maintained a presence on the app, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is a self-proclaimed democratic-socialist. The only Republican on the app is Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., according to the Post.
"Last election, there was still an open question: Could influencers move the needle on political campaigns?" said Daniel Darks, founder of a talent management firm called Palette, who orchestrated a visit with influencers at the White House. "It's been answered pretty solidly with a yes," he told the Post.
Not only will Democrats' tool be ripped away with Biden administration action against TikTok, but the disenfranchised young voters who have lived with the app might revolt and actually vote against them for it, Democrats fear.
"The bigger risk — rather than some dozen congresspeople that are on TikTok no longer having access to the platform — is the message it sends to young voters: Democrats seem even more out of touch with this growing constituency of millennials and Gen Z," Democrat pollster Nancy Zdunkewicz told the Post.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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