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US President Joe Biden will continue to use TikTok to help his re-election campaign, even after signing a law that will force the video-sharing platform’s Chinese owner to divest the app for security reasons.
A Biden campaign official said the app – which has been downloaded by 170 million Americans, more than half the population – was one of the ways the president would ensure his message was well received by young voters ahead of the November elections.
“With the stakes so high in the election, we are going to use every tool we have to reach young voters where they are,” said the official, who added that “enhanced security measures” were being implemented. in place.
Biden on Wednesday signed a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that included a measure to combat what U.S. national security officials see as the threat from Chinese group ByteDance, which owns from TikTok.
Under the legislation, U.S. app stores will be banned from offering TikTok — or facilitating updates — in 270 days unless ByteDance divests the app. The deadline would fall on Jan. 19, one day before the presidential inauguration, unless Biden chooses to grant a 90-day extension.
TikTok announced on Wednesday that it would take legal action to prevent the measure from taking effect. He said the law was an “unconstitutional” attempt to ban it.
The Biden campaign released its first TikTok video on February 11, the day of the Super Bowl. It has been viewed more than 10 million times. But just under half of the 149 videos his campaign has released since then have been seen by fewer than 100,000 viewers. Only nine have received more than a million views.
Congress moved with unusual speed to pass the TikTok legislation after it was introduced last month by Mike Gallagher, the now-retired chairman of the House China Committee. Republicans and Democrats ignored an aggressive lobbying campaign by TikTok, particularly after receiving classified information from security officials warning that Chinese ownership threatened Americans’ personal data.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week that ByteDance was “indebted” to the Chinese government, although TikTok has denied allegations that Beijing controls the app. U.S. officials stress that Chinese national security laws would require its owner to hand over the data if requested by Beijing.
“When Americans stop and think about what they think about the power, access, capacity and control that TikTok has, they need to think about it in terms of what they think about that same power, access, capacity, control in the hands of TikTok’s parent company in [the] Chinese government, and ultimately into Chinese intelligence services,” Wray told NBC television on Tuesday.