FOR WHOM THE TOK TIKSU.S. Election: Turning Off TikTok Is a Big Risk for the Democrats
Popular social media platform TikTok stands accused of holding US data in China, fostering censorship, and spreading disinformation. Its popularity poses a dilemma for US politicians, but especially Democrats who have heavily relied on the app to reach its core base of young voters.
Popular social media platform TikTok stands accused of holding US data in China, fostering censorship, and spreading disinformation. Its popularity poses a dilemma for US politicians, but especially Democrats who have heavily relied on the app to reach its core base of young voters.
Is it “time up” for TikTok in the US? And will it be the Democrats’ own leader, President Joe Biden, who ultimately decides to close down the platform heading into the 2024 elections?
On March 13 the US House of Representatives voted 352 to 65 to order TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, to sell the app (which is believed to have 150 million US users) or else face prohibition in the US over its alleged links to the Chinese Communist party.
The bill follows reports that TikTok’s American executives are already exploring options for voluntarily splitting with ByteDance in a preemptive move to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Although the bipartisan bill is by no means guaranteed to pass the Senate – where Democrat majority leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to bring it to a vote on the floor – Biden has said he would sign the proposal if it comes to his desk.
The campaign implications of this loom large. Many Democrats fear that banning TikTok in the lead-up to the election would be a self-inflicted political disaster, particularly when it comes to courting young voters.
One consultant called the Democrats “politically insane” for putting TikTok in jeopardy. And US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo speculated that blocking TikTok would lead to Democrats to “literally lose every voter under 35, forever”.
The impact of losing even a few marginal percentage points of votes from the under 35 crowd matters.
Young voters were pivotal in elevating Biden to the White House in 2020. However, some polling shows Biden lagging behind former president Donald Trump among gen-Z and young millenials.
Investing in TikTok
In recent months, Democratic party operatives have not-so-quietly invested enormously into voter outreach on TikTok, in the hopes of shoring up the youth vote. The Biden campaign account, @BidenHQ, has more than 266,000 followers and @thedemocrats has over 529,000.
The overwhelmingly young, progressive user base is likely to resent the government taking away their favourite app. A ban could also severely limit the Democratic party’s ability to connect with younger voters through advertising and other forms of engagement.
