When the president joe biden returned to the White House after giving his speech On the State of the Union, TikTok influencer Awa Sanneh, 23, joined the cheers along with administrative staff gathered on the mansion’s back porch.
Biden told the group “how important” social media content is for reach voters of Generation Z, Sanneh recalled, among dozens of creators invited to a viewing party that night.
Just a few weeks later, Biden signed a bill into law which obliges the parent company of Beijing-based TikTok, ByteDanceto sell their stake or face a ban on US app stores.
This has worried social media creators. His campaign has taken unprecedented steps in court.
Will Biden lose the influencer vote?
“I am quite critical of him at the moment”said Sanneh, who has attended multiple administration briefings and has more than 510,000 followers. “If you really understood the impact, then you would want keep TikTok”.
The adoption by Biden’s divestment bill The ban exemplifies his efforts to contain what administration officials and lawmakers from both parties see as a growing national security threat from China. However, he continues to promote his political message on the platform.
None of the influencers they spoke to BloombergNews said Biden had lost his vote. However, it is likely that new law discourages younger voters, who have propelled the app to mainstream relevance and are key to Democratic election victories. Many are no longer enthusiastic about Biden’s re-election.
“Election after election, young people continue to show us that they understand what is at stake right now and will vote as if their future depends on it, because it does,” said Biden campaign spokesman Seth Schuster.
White House officials deny ban on TikTok
Kenny Walden, who has 167 thousand followers on TikTok and has attended White House events, posted a video on the platform expressing confusion over Biden’s decision to support the bill over data privacy and security concerns.
“I’m against it, Joe,” said Walden, whose content focuses on encouraging people to vote for Biden. The president is silencing his “first line of defense,” he added, referring to creators like him.
Those who oppose the bill say that threatens freedom of expression and sets the social media platform apart from others that collect user data.
White House officials maintain that their intention is not ban TikTok from operatingbut to force the Chinese owner of the application to divest.
He 270-day deadline for ByteDance extends beyond November, allowing users to continue publishing during the elections.
“This is about our national security. “These are not concerns about Americans using Tiktok,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “There is certainly time in the books to see how this plays out.”
