US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joins TikTok with ‘lol hey guys’ to woo younger voters
- Launch occurs during Super Bowl despite administration’s insistence that the Chinese short-video app poses a national security threat
- Move comes as Biden sees slippage in support from younger voters, analysts note
US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign launched its official TikTok account during the Super Bowl on Sunday after months of weighing whether to join the popular social media platform he has banned on federal devices because of national security concerns.
The “@bidenhq” account uploaded its first video captioned “lol hey guys”, which featured Biden being quizzed about his preferences for the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. Asked about conspiracy theories about whether the Super Bowl was rigged, Biden replied, “I’d get in trouble if I told you”.
Weeks before, some conservatives, including former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, speculated that the game would be rigged in favour of the Chiefs so that pop icon Taylor Swift – whose boyfriend Travis Kelce plays for the Chiefs – could use the opportunity to endorse Biden.
The clip was viewed over five million times in 15 hours, and has garnered over 560,000 likes. The page has attracted nearly 60,000 followers so far.
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Biden’s TikTok launch came a year after he ordered US governmental agencies to remove the app from all federal devices. Additionally, more than 30 US states do not allow their employees to use the app on government devices.