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In the rush to win over the youth vote, politicians are increasingly embracing social media platforms that are popular with young 18-to-34 voters. It started earlier in the 2024 campaign season when they started partnering with social media influencers to create political content. And it has now widened to the point where presidential candidates are blatantly ignoring the upcoming TikTok ban that goes into effect in just a few months.
Conveniently, “in just a few months” means that the TikTok ban is happening after the all-important November election. Both candidates – Kamala Harris (and before her, Joe Biden) and Donald Trump – are starting to break all the rules when it comes to their own stances on social media. And that should be a very big concern right now.
How can you ban a platform and use it at the same time?
The real elephant in the room is the Democrats’ use of TikTok right now. Remember – it was Joe Biden who promised to ban TikTok in January 2025. And yet, time and time again, he has broken all the rules. Remember that attempt to recruit “economic influencers” to tell people on social media how great the economy was doing? That was largely a TikTok-led strategy.
And now Kamala Harris is leaning into TikTok as a way to continue a “brat summer” filled with “vibes.” To mobilize her base of supporters, she is now looking for ways to post campaign video clips all over TikTok. And, at times, she has even used TikTok to troll Donald Trump in what has turned into a war of words over who has the biggest crowds.
And it’s not like Donald Trump is above the fray, either. Remember when he said he would never be coming back to X or Facebook? Well, he broke that rule when Elon Musk reinstated his account. Trump then participated in an epic interview with the billionaire on X that reportedly got over 1 billion impressions.
And remember when Donald Trump said that he was going to break all campaign news exclusively on Truth Social? This was supposed to create a sort of pro-MAGA social media counterweight to the likes of Twitter and Facebook. He now seems to be relaxing that stance as well, given that he’s probably going to get a lot more views and impressions on X than he is on Truth Social. And that’s especially true when it comes to left-leaning or uncommitted voters, who are unlikely to be creating new social media accounts for Truth Social.
Finally, it was Donald Trump – not Joe Biden – who originally promised to ban TikTok. You know, because China. And now Trump appears to be backtracking on this position, primarily because the new anti-Tik Tok legislation was written in such a way that it could be interpreted to include a Trump-friendly social platform such as Truth Social.
Where do we go from here?
Suffice it to say, this is shaping up to be a very interesting presidential election for social media. You have the EU threatening to shut down Elon Musk and X for his efforts in helping Donald Trump win the presidency. And you now have France arresting Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram. What social platform will come under fire next? Clearly, the establishment is looking to clamp down on all free speech that doesn’t follow a certain narrative.
One thing is certain: traditional media has faded into obscurity as a way of reaching voters. Consider that Kamala Harris doesn’t even consider it worth her time to sit down for an interview with them. And Donald Trump, who has derided the media as “fake news” for nearly a decade now, sees more value in sitting down with Elon Musk and X than sitting down with the likes of Fox News.
So keep your focus on TikTok over the next several months. It’s not just where the young cool kids are hanging out these days. It’s also where the two candidates running for the presidency of this nation are choosing to allocate their time, attention, and campaign dollars.
