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STORY: With this post, U.S. President Joe Biden joined TikTok during the Super Bowl in February.

His reelection campaign launched the account under username @BidenHQ, and in little over a month it has garnered more than 250,000 followers.

Another account @thedemocrats has over half a million.

Politicians and strategists increasingly recognize the importance of using TikTok to reach young voters.

But the new push to potentially ban the Chinese-owned social media app could hurt Biden reelection efforts.

Let's take a closer look.

As the 2024 election is shaping up to be close, political strategists say TikTok is the platform of choice for a new generation of politically engaged Americans.

(Elizabeth Waybright, TikTok User)

“I get most of my news actually through TikTok, and it helps me be aware of more activism as well as issues going on in the community.”

TikTok users belong disproportionately to groups that vote reliably for Democrats.

A 2023 study from the Pew Research Center said roughly 60% of the app’s news consumers are Democrats or Democrat-leaning.

Donald Trump's campaign does not have an official TikTok account.

U.S. officials have long criticized TikTok's security and privacy, suggesting user data might be shared with China.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has denied sharing any U.S. user data with Beijing.

Most recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short video app, or face a ban.

If the Senate passes the bill, Biden has pledged to sign it.

Federal employees are banned from having TikTok on their phones.

That means Biden administration staff are not allowed to have the app on their work phones.

But Biden's campaign staff workers can as they are not employed by the government.

Most campaign staffers who are in frequent contact with the White House, therefore, have two phones.

That's according to one source briefed on the issue.

The source says Biden's campaign is trying to reach people "where they are," while also taking all necessary security precautions necessary to make sure no data gets into the wrong hands.