US Vice-President Kamala Harris joins TikTok following meme surge

WASHINGTON - United States Vice-President Kamala Harris has officially joined TikTok, with her first personal account on the viral video-sharing site, capitalising on a surge in popularity of posts set off by the announcement of her candidacy for president.

Ms Harris unveiled her TikTok account, @kamalaharris, on July 25. Since she began her presidential campaign four days ago, TikTok and other social-media platforms have seen a groundswell of viral memes, images and videos featuring her.

“Thought it was about time to join!” Ms Harris’ caption on her first post reads. “I’ve heard that recently I’ve been on the For You page,” she says in the accompanying video, referring to the site’s home for recommendations to users.

Her campaign headquarters already had a TikTok page, which was rebranded after she absorbed the campaign staff of her boss – President Joe Biden – who suspended his re-election bid on July 21.

Since Ms Harris’ takeover, the account more than tripled its following from 440,000 followers to more than 1.7 million followers, the campaign said.

More than 95 per cent of left-leaning TikTok posts about Ms Harris currently have a positive sentiment towards her, according to social-media analytics firm CredoIQ founder Ben Darr. 

“At no other point in the last two months, even with all of the other stunning events, have we seen such a drastic overnight shift,” added Mr Darr, who tracks viral political content, in an e-mail.

Deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said his team intends to “break through the noise” of a fractured media environment to reach voters. “We’re leaving no stone unturned,” he said, adding that Ms Harris could “engage with a key constituency in a way that’s true and authentic to” TikTok.

Still, Ms Harris’ following is dwarfed by her election-year opponent, former president Donald Trump, who boasts a 9.2 million follower-count on the platform. Ms Harris had more than 965,000 followers several hours after her first post, which was viewed more than 5.1 million times.

Ms Annie Wu Henry, a digital political consultant who worked on the successful campaigns of Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, attributes the uptick in social-media activity to “organic” interest in Ms Harris from voters.

“Joining in on the fun rather than pushing it, I think, was really smart, as well as, we’ve seen, effective,” Ms Wu Henry said of the campaign’s strategy. 

More than 170 million Americans have accounts on TikTok, the company says, underscoring its immense reach. A third of adults under 30 get their news from the app, according to the Pew Research Centre. BLOOMBERG