We need to talk about Democrats on TikTok

Why were they all jumping on Chinese spyware?

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With his usual haunts closed thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, Cockburn has been clamoring for a new source of entertainment. Luckily, his nieces, who are always on the forefront of technology, have introduced him to a new app called ‘TikTok.’

The app, which allows users to create and upload short videos, has been gaining steam over the past year thanks to huge popularity among the Zoomer generation. As with most things that young people like, desperate politicians quickly pretended to understand or be interested in TikTok. In 2020, various Democratic candidates started to appear in videos themselves,…

With his usual haunts closed thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, Cockburn has been clamoring for a new source of entertainment. Luckily, his nieces, who are always on the forefront of technology, have introduced him to a new app called ‘TikTok.’

The app, which allows users to create and upload short videos, has been gaining steam over the past year thanks to huge popularity among the Zoomer generation. As with most things that young people like, desperate politicians quickly pretended to understand or be interested in TikTok. In 2020, various Democratic candidates started to appear in videos themselves, mostly through the Washington Post’s TikTok account. Things got very awkward, very quickly. Julián Castro was the only candidate with his own official campaign account on the app, but appeared in just one video where he awkwardly smiled as campaign staffers danced around him. His lip syncing video with his twin brother for the Post was much funnier. Andrew Yang celebrated polling at three percent in one video, Beto O’Rourke gave another speech full of platitudes, Cory Booker raced through the airport to catch a flight, and Amy Klobuchar joked about having the ‘receipts’ that she pulls out of a CVS bag. Shockingly, Gov. Steve Bullock managed to pull out the most authentic TikTok by appearing in a dance video on his daughter’s account.

Never mind the obvious cringe, isn’t it a bit disturbing that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company with serious privacy and security issues? Why were all these potential presidents pandering to a Chinese spyware platform? Perhaps nothing matters so long as you are down with the kidz.