On Thursday, the Joe Biden administration briefed around 30 TikTok influencers on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine clashes, reports Washington Post. According to the Post, the White House met the social media influencers over Zoom to discuss the ongoing clashes in Ukraine. The meeting was led by White House press secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Council special communications adviser Matt Miller.
The White House briefed the TikTok creators on “strategic goals in the region” while National Security Council staffers. Meanwhile, Psaki “answered questions on distributing aid to Ukrainians, working with NATO, and how the United States would react to a Russian use of nuclear weapons.”
Following the interaction with the influencers, Rob Flaherty, White House digital strategy director, said the briefing is part of an effort to provide reliable information from an “authoritative source”. He said that the White House acknowledged TikTok as a “critically important” source for updates on Ukraine.
Jules Suzdaltsev, the operator of the TikTok account Good Morning Bad News, criticised the Biden administration, saying it felt like a press event “for kindergarteners”. Another TikTok news provider, Marcus DiPaola, also said the White House did not address its involvement in other invasions.
Kahlil Greene, who has more than 534,000 followers on TikTok, said that it made sense the Biden administration would want to partner with creators like him.
“People in my generation get all our information from TikTok. It’s the first place we’re searching up new topics and learning about things,” he said.
Greene also criticised the Biden administration for not acknowledging America’s own involvement and connection to “occupations, invasions, in general, bad faith actions throughout the world”.
This is not the first time the Biden administration has roped in TikTok creators and celebrities to spread various messages. They had utilised the services of social media influencers to spread the news about the Covid-19 vaccines.
The US government had enlisted 50 Twitch streamers, YouTubers and TikTokers to help them drum up their vaccination numbers and combat the scourge of vaccine misinformation being spread on social media.
