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As rap lyrics play in the background of the 8-second clip, a young woman struts toward her camera with messy hair, sweatpants and a white tank top. Timed up with the track's beat, she drops low.
This is usually when the screen would flip, showing the TikTok creator in some new make-up or a fancy outfit. But instead, a middle aged white-man appears in a suit and blue tie.
Mirroring the woman's dance pose before crouching on his office floor, he says, "Hey, are you registered to vote?"
"There's a primary on August 23rd and the general election is November 8th," Florida Democratic congressional candidate Ken Russell adds as he crawls toward his phone's screen -- an American flag waving in the background, "Wait, come back, wait ..."
While some political strategists view TikTok as another way to engage voters and constituents, many in the intelligence and national security community accuse the Beijing-owned platform of having nefarious intentions.
Russel lost in the Democratic primary on August 23, but his viral video has re-sparked a years-long conversation over the safety of these platforms for Americans to use. Social media has revolutionized political campaigning over the last decade, with platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram playing an outsized role in the success of modern campaigns.
With 2.9 billion current monthly users in 156 countries and over $100 billion (USD) in revenue last year, Meta — the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- is the world's largest social media conglomerate.
Comparatively, TikTok — owned by Beijing-based ByteDance — is much smaller. At 1.2 billion monthly users, the company has less than half the number of its American competitor. It is available in 154 countries (and is notably unavailable in India, Russia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh) and generated $4.6 billion (USD) in revenue during the fiscal year 2021.
But these numbers do not tell the whole story.
While American social media platforms like Meta are blocked in mainland China, nearly 10% of Tik Tok's current user base is in the U.S. And although older generations continue to gravitate toward traditional American social media platforms, research reveals an apparent decline in the share of young people actively using them.
Some 67% of American teens say they use TikTok, compared to 60% of teens who say they use Instagram, and just 32% who say they use Facebook, a recent report from Pew Research found.
Although it only launched five years ago, the Chinese social media app has shown explosive growth. It was the most downloaded web application in 2021, and became the seventh-most downloaded application of the last decade (2010-2020), according to Business of Apps.
While Facebook remains the most used platform globally, TikTok has the momentum among young users. And as its American user base continues to increase, its appeal to politicians seeking to reach that base does as well.
Politicians are "trying to establish a presence and foothold in wherever people are going next," Thad Kousser, a political science professor at U.C. San Diego, recently told the Los Angeles Times. "The bet is that the voters and donors of the next five to 10 years are people who will be using it as their social media of choice."
Frequent users of TikTok celebrate its usability, engaging platform, and potential for organic reach.
But key members of the U.S. intelligence community have expressed concerns about the app, specifically around election security, the spread of disinformation, and worries that the platform could get leveraged as a tool for the People's Republic of China.
Significant mention has also been raised over data privacy concerns.
Two separate BuzzFeed News investigations over the summer revealed that TikTok let China-based ByteDance, its parent company, repeatedly access the data of the app's American users.
TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan responded to these reports with a short statement.
"We know we're among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint," Shanahan said, "and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data."
Brendan Carr, senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, leveled serious criticism at the popular social media platform. In a June tweet, he described ByteDance as "beholden" to the Chinese government and "required by law to comply with surveillance demands."
He later called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, although regulating social media platforms is not under his agency's jurisdiction.
"TikTok is not just another video app," Carr wrote. "That's the sheep's clothing."
Two senators from the Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Mark R. Warner (Chairman) and Republican Marco Rubio (Vice-Chair), have also joined the fight against Tik Tok, responding to the new security revelations with outrage.
In July, the two penned a letter to Lina Khan, chairwoman of TikTok, demanding that the company initiate a full investigation into the claims.
And more recently, after the Office of the Chief Administrator's (COA) Office of Cybersecurity determined the platform to be high-risk to users, some members of the House have advised their staff members to avoid downloading the application on their mobile devices, in accordance with advice from the CAO.
"TikTok is a Chinese-owned company," the two-page memo states, "and any use of this platform should be done with that in mind."
The CAO Office of Cybersecurity deemed the TikTok mobile application to be high-risk to users due to its lack of transparency in how it protects customer data, its requirement of excessive permissions, and the potential security risks involved with its use, the memo added.
TikTok later challenged these allegations in a letter dated August 11.
The company's vice president, Michael Beckerman, wrote a response that asked the House Chief Administrative Officer to recant the warning.
"We urge the CAO to rescind the 'TikTok Cyber Advisory,'" he wrote. "While we would have preferred a dialogue with your office prior to the Advisory being sent, we look forward to meeting with you to further discuss the facts laid out in this letter and ensure that accurate information about TikTok is shared going forward."
Despite these ongoing concerns, caucus members and political candidates continue to use and upload content on the Beijing-owned platform. The Democratic National Committee, which cautioned staffers in 2020 against downloading the app, even joined TikTok earlier this year.
This has only increased scrutiny on the issue and put pressure on President Biden to find a more meaningful solution.
Speaking on the administration's progress on TikTok in August, Florida Senator Marco Rubio told The New York Times, "It's just not been a priority over there, unfortunately, and I hope it will become one with the new revelations."
Unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump, who actively pursued a ban on the use of TikTok in 2020 because he viewed it as a national security threat, Biden backed off the confrontational approach to regulation early in his presidency pending his own review of the matter.
But as new reports of misconduct from the foreign company continue, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the White House is again considering issuing a stand-alone order aimed specifically at TikTok.
The Commerce Department is also reviewing proposed rule changes that would expand government oversight of apps that could be exploited "by foreign adversaries to steal or otherwise obtain data," according to a federal filing.
