Here's Why Biden Will Be Launching A TikTok Account
President Joe Biden may be almost 80 years old, but he's pretty hip to the world of social media. He already runs his personal and POTUS accounts on Twitter and Instagram, and with the 2022 midterm elections underway, it makes sense for him to launch an account on TikTok, too. However, this TikTok account won't be run by the Commander in Chief himself. Rather, a Biden-affiliated nonprofit group called Building Back Together will operate the TikTok account on the president's behalf, according to a report from The Verge.
The group launched the TikTok account on Wednesday, April 6 under @buildingbacktogether in order to further expand Biden's policy agenda to young users who use the platform more regularly than they do Instagram and Twitter. The account's first video, set to the ABBA song "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," touts the Biden administration's accomplishments thus far, including the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who would be the first Black woman on the bench if confirmed.
@buildingbacktogether Ayo take us to the White House 😎 First year down 🤘#joebiden #news
Building Back Together is named after a bill Biden introduced ahead of Biden's inauguration in 2021 called the Build Back Better Act, which provided a social policy framework to ensure no family spends more than 7% percent of their income on childcare and that action gets taken to combat climate change. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) killed the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is currently working with Democrats to revive it.
Why Building Back Together really launched a TikTok account on Biden's behalf
A Building Back Together spokesperson told The Verge that the goal of the group's TikTok account is to reach out to the platform's young user base, which mostly comprises those in Gen Z. It plans to incorporate TikTok's latest trends, features like the green screen filter, dances, and popular audio into the content to explain Biden's agenda and its positive impacts in a language they can understand.
At the time of writing, the group's TikTok page has garnered 83 followers and counting, but it's unclear just how effective it will be in grabbing young users' attention. In comparison, the group has more than 4,600 followers and Twitter and 1,100 followers on Instagram.
Despite the controversy TikTok has faced recently, including from the attorneys general investigation into its possible detrimental impacts on young people's mental health, the Biden administration has embraced the rising social media giant — so much, in fact, that it briefed TikTok creators on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Given that Gen Z is more politically motivated than previous generations are with regards to climate change, student loans, LGBTQ+ rights, voter's rights, and women's rights, among other things, TikTok is the appropriate avenue for the administration to inform them on Biden's plans to ensure they have a better future.