WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s re-election campaign plans to continue using TikTok for at least the next year, despite the president signing a law Wednesday that would ban the social media platform nationwide if its China-based parent company doesn’t sell it in that time frame.
“A fragmented media environment requires us to show up and meet voters where they are — and that includes online,” a Biden campaign official told NBC News. “TikTok is one of many places we’re making sure our content is being seen by voters.”
The Biden campaign says it plans to use “every tool we have to reach young voters where they are” and has pledged to keep using “enhanced security measures.”
The statement comes one day after his campaign declined to comment on whether it would continue using TikTok, prior to the bill's final passage.
Initially, sources close to the Biden re-election effort said that the 2024 campaign would not be using the app, but the campaign ultimately decided to launch its own account in February.
The videos it posts often feature Biden himself — even as his own White House has said that it has "legitimate national security concerns with respect to data integrity" on the app. A second campaign official said it is still too early to say whether Biden will still be a part of the TikTok content.
The account, @bidenhq, has more than 306,000 followers and posted nearly 120 videos. Biden's 2024 competitor, former President Donald Trump, is not on TikTok.
The new law gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S. The president could grant a one-time 90-day extension, but even without it, the earliest a ban could start is January.
Biden’s team also expects there could be legal challenges to the legislation, which could delay the timetable of any possible ban in the U.S. as well.
Aides acknowledge that many young people are worried about what signing this bill could mean for one of their favorite online apps, but the campaign insisted this move will not hurt their standing with that key demographic.
“Like he did in 2020, Joe Biden will beat Trump with the backing of young voters who know he’s kept his promises and is committed to delivering on the issues that matter most to them: to fight climate change, reform gun laws, reduce student loans, and build a country that moves us forward, not backward,” the first campaign official said.
“Reducing young people’s vote down to the use of a social media app is unserious, inaccurate and insulting: Election after election, young people continue to show us they understand the stakes of this moment and will vote like their futures depend on it — because they do.”
The second campaign official emphasized that their digital outreach extends far beyond TikTok, with Facebook, Instagram and a supportive influencer network as key parts of that strategy.
The campaign boasts that it launched the largest and earliest youth voter outreach program ever last month, with 15 youth organizations endorsing the president.
