Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined TikTok Wednesday, following in the footsteps of fellow Democrats President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republicans former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
As of Thursday afternoon, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor had more than 567,000 followers.
In his first video, Buttigieg said, "I'm Pete Buttigieg. You might recognize me from Fox News. Now I'm on TikTok. Obviously."
Politicians are embracing TikTok in a bid to reach young people, who increasingly get their news from social media. But TikTok and parent company ByteDance have come under U.S. scrutiny amid concerns the video-sharing platform poses a risk to national security.
President Biden signed a law in April that would ban TikTok nationwide unless Chinese-owned ByteDance sells the platform.
ByteDance, in return, sued the federal government, arguing in its lawsuit, "For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide."
A ban could take years to go into effect, which means it's not going anywhere during the 2024 election cycle. However, several states and the federal government have banned TikTok from government-owned devices, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle call for legislation to force a sale of the company.
Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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