TikTokers are calling out President Joe Biden for hypocrisy after the White House reportedly briefed TikTokers and other influencers ahead of his State of the Union speech—then backed a bill that would ban TikTok a day later.
“this is unbelievable,” @probably_n0t_chris captioned his video discussing the story.
“Within 24 hours after that invitation, he says he will support a TikTok ban. If this is not proof that politicians will … use you and cast you aside the moment they get what they want, I don’t know what is,” he said in the video. “And to the … influencers that went: if you feel half as stupid as you should you will remember this lesson for the rest of your fucking life. What did you expect? This guy brought you on to promote your own unemployment.”
WIRED reported last Thursday that the White House invited around 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers to meet with the administration to “amplify the White House’s messages across social media.” According to the report, influencers who were invited had around 100 million followers, and the briefing included topics like student debt relief and the administration’s economic agenda.
In addition to the briefings (one was reportedly on Wednesday, and a second on Thursday), Vice President Kamala Harris met with the influencers at an “influencer luncheon” on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, Biden told reporters that he’d sign a bill which would ban TikTok unless its parent company ByteDance sells the platform.
“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden said.
The bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed out of a House committee on Thursday In a unanimous 50-0 vote. It would ban TikTok from both app stores and web hosting services in the U.S. unless it cuts ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Politicians in both parties claim that TikTok is a national security threat because of the data it vacuums up, as well as allegedly brainwashing teenagers into supporting Palestine.
“I was one of the 70 influencers that was invited,” posted Gabrielle Judge, a TikToker who calls herself the “Anti Work Girlboss” and shares tips and tricks for working the least and making the most in corporate America. “So let me spill all the tea with you.”
Judge explained that she got an email from an agency on Monday inviting her and others to what was essentially a watch party for the State of the Union.
“I’m not super political on this platform for one reason, I care about work-life balance, I care about employee conditions while they’re working, right? That typically doesn’t really have a political party attached to it, I personally am not attached to a political party in my personal life as well, so I’m not going to pander to one side,” Judge said in the video, explaining that she was on the fence about going because she didn’t want to create any division in her community, which was designed to talk about the frustrations of corporate America.
“24 hours [after] the State of the Union address is when Biden … was like ‘yo, if TikTok is gonna get banned, I would totally sign on that.’”
“Hard stop, right? I was like: oop, no, absolutely not, after Biden has used TikTok to campaign certain things recently anyway, so I was like you’re full of crap,” Judge said.
It wasn’t the first time Biden came under scrutiny for hypocrisy over his stance on TikTok. Despite signing an executive order last February instructing the federal government to purge the app off their devices, Biden’s campaign launched a TikTok account during the Super Bowl.
Biden’s opponent in the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social on Thursday that if TikTok was deleted Facebook would double their business, pushed the brakes on the drive to ban TikTok.
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!, he posted.
