BRILYN HOLLYHAND: White House Joins TikTok

When news broke that President Trump’s White House was officially joining TikTok, I wasn’t surprised — I was encouraged.

Too many in Washington still see TikTok as just a goofy dance app. For my generation, it’s the front page of the internet. And if Republicans want to win and hold Gen Z, ignoring it is political malpractice.

I’m 19, part of Gen Z, and I’ve seen firsthand what gets through to my peers. I chaired the RNC’s Youth Advisory Council and even met with the President one-on-one to urge him to join TikTok during the campaign.

Not because I loved China, but because I understood that our party issuing this self-imposed, sanctimonious boycott of the app would only make my peers on the app feel unheard.

The left was filling that space with content while too many conservatives sat on the sidelines.

But I also get the criticism. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, and legitimate concerns exist about the Chinese Communist Party’s influence.

The question isn’t whether TikTok matters — the data proves it does. The question is: how do we deal with the national security risk without losing the ability to reach the voters who spend their lives on the platform?

Let’s start with the numbers. About 39% of U.S. adults under 30 say they regularly get news from TikTok, and some surveys put that figure closer to half. Compare that with cable news, where under-30s barely register. More broadly, 71% of Gen Z and Millennials get news daily through social media — and they don’t stick to one platform.

They scroll Instagram, YouTube, X, Reddit, and Snapchat, averaging four platforms a week.

And here’s the kicker: 58% of under-30 voters are “passive” news consumers. They’re not going out of their way to read the newspaper or tune in to nightly news. They encounter information because it lands in their feed. If political leaders — especially conservatives — don’t show up there, they’re ceding the entire conversation.