Harris campaign joins TikTok after Biden signed ban

Vice President Kamala Harris is now the proud owner of a TikTok account.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for president joined the app on Thursday, where Harris-themed memes about coconut trees and “Brat summer” have been viral for weeks. Within hours, her account amassed 1.3 million followers. 

“I heard that recently I’ve been on the For You page, so I thought I’d get on here myself,” Harris says in her first post, which has 1.9 million likes, more than 71,000 comments and upwards of 69,000 bookmarks. 

Adoring content about Harris has dominated the platform since Sunday, when President Biden announced he would no longer be running for re-election and endorsed his vice president for the Democratic nomination. 

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Harris’ decision to join in on the fun reflects the importance Democrats place on reaching young voters: most TikTok users in the U.S. are under 30. While the vast majority of TikTok’s 170 million American users say they’re on the platform to be entertained, more than one third use the app to keep up with politics, according to Pew Research, a larger share than those on Facebook or Instagram.

The Biden White House has heavily courted social media influences to advocate for the president’s policies. Gen Z content creators have been invited to tour the White House and Biden campaign headquarters. In 2022, a group of 30 leading TikTok stars attended a news briefing on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And the New York Times has reported extensively on Biden’s efforts to host TikTok creators with State of the Union watch parties and exclusive invitations to Democratic fundraisers, as well as access to party officials and a special room to film videos at the upcoming DNC convention.

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Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas.  (Photo by Montinique Monroe/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Republicans have made similar efforts to increase their presence on social media. Nearly 100 conservative influencers were given credentials at the RNC convention in July to generate buzz about former President Trump’s re-election campaign. The convention’s digital team set up a Creator Hub for them and provided time to go to the convention floor to film videos and interviews, Axios reported. 

Trump joined TikTok in June. His first post featured Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dna White at a UFC title fight in New Jersey and garnered more than 2.3 million likes and 38 million views in just one day. Trump’s account now enjoys 9.2 million followers. 

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Trump no longer supports a ban on TikTok.  (Getty Images)

But even as both parties embrace TikTok for campaigning, there has been bipartisan agreement that the app from Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance has national security vulnerabilities. Policymakers are concerned about the Chinese government’s ability to access TikTok’s data on American users or leverage the platform to push propaganda and influence elections. 

Trump, as president, issued an executive order to ban TikTok, but it was challenged in court. He has since reversed his position, arguing “there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it” and that if the app were banned, Facebook would benefit, which he calls “an enemy of the people.” 

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Congress renewed the effort with Biden’s support and together the U.S. enacted a law in April that gives ByteDance a 270-day deadline to sell TikTok to a U.S. company or be banned. ByteDance must now find a buyer, remove TikTok from U.S. app stores or challenge the law in court before a January deadline. 

Last month, TikTok called for a federal court to strike down the law that requires ByteDance to divest the app. ByteDance argues that divesting TikTok’s U.S. assets is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally.”

Reached for comment, a Harris campaign spokesperson said the vice president does not want to ban TikTok. 

“As the VP has said before, we don’t want to ban TikTok,” the campaign said. “We would just like to see a change in ownership.”

FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.