A super PAC supporting President Joe Biden's re-election campaign plans to spend $1 million on approximately 150 TikTok influencers.
The super PAC, Priorities USA, will enlist local and national influencers to target young voters — especially those in battleground states.
The plan is being referred to as a "creator" program, according to a report from Politico.
"The effort is part of a larger Democratic strategy to lure young voters in battleground states, who polls show are increasingly critical of Biden, whether over his age or issues like his stance towards Israel," the report explained. "Biden’s reelection campaign itself is amping up its work with social media influencers in 2024, though those partnerships are currently unpaid, Daniel Wessel, a Biden campaign spokesperson, told POLITICO. The White House team separately is also flexing its creator game, throwing its first-ever influencer Christmas party last December."
The report explains that other Democrat PACs have used influencers in the past, including the 2022 midterms, but it appears to be a new strategy for Priorities USA, one of the most influential PACs out there.
There are strict rules surrounding paid political content on TikTok, and Politico alleges that the PAC may have already violated some of the platform's policies.
Politico reports, "With few federal regulations over campaign advertising on social media, each platform sets its own rules. TikTok has the strictest policy — banning political advertising entirely, including branded political content from creators. Instagram and Facebook, owned by Meta, allow for paid political ads and sponsored political content from creators as long as the group is registered in its ad library. ( Priorities is listed.) And X, formerly Twitter, lifted its political ads ban last year."
"The policies appear to be poorly enforced. After POLITICO shared five TikTok videos from August and October from national creators paid by Priorities, TikTok removed four of them for violating their branded content policies on political issues," the report added.
Priorities spokesperson Jack Doyle told the outlet that their paid influencer content is “storytelling focused,” and creators will “talk about their lived experiences.”
“If content is taken down, our general practice is to work with the social media company to understand why,” Doyle said. “We look forward to working with TikTok throughout the cycle.”
