U.S. President Joe Biden officially has a presence on TikTok. But his reelection campaign is having to defend its decision to put him on the video sharing app. That is because his administration has repeatedly warned of national security concerns linked to TikTok.
Biden, a Democrat, first appeared on TikTok in a video published Sunday night. The 30-second video showed him answering a series of questions, mostly about Sunday’s Super Bowl.
U.S. officials have said the decision to put the president on TikTok came from Biden’s campaign organization, not the White House. Campaign officials have explained that they see TikTok as a way for Biden, age 81, to connect with younger voters.
Last month, a TikTok representative told U.S. lawmakers the app currently had an estimated 170 million active users in the United States. That was up from 150 million a year earlier. Online data company Statista has estimated about 70 percent of American teenagers are users of TikTok.
U.S. officials have long warned that TikTok presents national security concerns. The government has accused TikTok’s owner, Chinese company ByteDance, of sharing user data with China’s government. Critics have said China could also use TikTok to spread misinformation and that material published on the service can harm the mental health of young users.
TikTok denies the accusations.
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