Biden campaign trumpets joining TikTok, despite his own administration's security concerns

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is defending its new TikTok account as a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden ’s reelection campaign on Monday defended its new TikTok account as a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters, even as his administration continued to raise security concerns about whether the popular social media app might be sharing user data with China’s communist government.

The campaign's inaugural post featured the president being quizzed on Sunday's Super Bowl — and included a reference to the latest political conspiracy theory centering on pop superstar Taylor Swift.

“The President’s TikTok debut last night — with more than 5 million views and counting — is proof positive of both our commitment and success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented, and increasingly personalized media environment,” Biden reelection deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement.

At the White House, though, national security spokesman John Kirby said “there are still national security concerns about the use of TikTok on government devices and there’s been no change to our policy not to allow that.”

Kirby referred most questions about TikTok to the Biden campaign and ducked a more general query about whether it was wise to use the app at all. He said the potential security issues "have to do with concerns about the preservation of data and potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors.”