US President Joe Biden’s political team is considering joining the TikTok social media platform in the runup to his 2024 reelection campaign, according to reporting on Friday.
The move would demonstrate US government efforts to influence content on the platform, and on social media in general. Many politically-sensitive positions at tech giants such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google are already filled by veterans of the FBI and CIA. TikTok, which originally became popular in China, represents an outlier in the social media landscape.
That’s led many Republicans – and some Democrats – to call for the platform to be banned in the United States. Such a move would be unprecedented in a country that purportedly values freedom of speech as a core principle, although many Russian media outlets were banned from US platforms last year after the country launched its special military operation in Ukraine.
Republican presidential candidates vowed to shut down the platform’s US operations in a recent debate, claiming the app is being used to promote anti-Israel views. The issue reemerged this week after videos went viral on the platform linking to the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” from 2002.
The heavy hand of government interference on social media may spark discussion about the degree to which freedom of speech and open debate truly exists in America, where elite voices and powerful interests often monopolize the public square – all served up via opaque social media algorithms closely guarded by a handful of companies.
There’s no word yet on whether Biden’s attempts to appeal to younger Americans may involve a rethinking of his steadfast support for Israel, a position becoming increasingly unpopular with younger age groups.