THE MOST DIVISIVE YET POPUlar social media platform is shaping up as one of the biggest players in this year's presidential election.
Despite criticism of TikTok from both sides, the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees are signaling that the Chinese-owned app will be critical to reaching voters, especially young ones, ahead of November.
President Joe Biden signed a law in April that would ban TikTok outright in the U.S. if Beijing-based ByteDance does not sell it by January 2025. And ex-President Donald Trump once tried to ban it with an executive order.
Yet on June 1, Trump launched a personal account with a 13-second video in which UFC President Dana White declared: "The president is now on TikTok." As of June 5, he had 5.4 million followers and his video had been viewed over 84.4 million times. And after months of avoiding it over privacy and national security concerns related to TikTok's Chinese ownership, the Biden campaign team joined the platform during Super Bowl in February.
Biden's campaign said it will use TikTok until Election Day, and added in a statement: "A fragmented media environment requires us to show up and meet voters where they are-and that includes online. TikTok is one of many places we're making sure our content is being seen by voters."
When approached by Newsweek, the Biden campaign said it has "a robust operation to reach young voters and move them to the polls" and has "built a deep bench of trusted messengers across social media platforms which dates back to 2020...and is continuing to grow now."
Denne historien er fra June 21 - 28, 2024 (Double Issue)-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Denne historien er fra June 21 - 28, 2024 (Double Issue)-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout'
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
Amber Ruffin
A LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CNN? YES, and it's a game show, too.
