WASHINGTON — When President Joe Biden returned to the White House after delivering his State of the Union address, 23-year-old TikTok influencer Awa Sanneh joined roaring cheers alongside administration staffers gathered on the mansion’s back porch.

Biden told the group “how important” social media content is to reach Gen-Z voters, recalled Sanneh, among dozens of creators invited for a watch party that night.

Just weeks later, Biden signed into law a bill that forces TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., to sell its stake or face a ban in U.S. app stores. That has rattled the social media creators his campaign has taken unprecedented steps to court.

“I’m pretty critical of him at this moment in time,” said Sanneh, who has attended multiple administration briefings and has more than 510,000 followers. “If you truly understood the impact, then you would want to keep TikTok.”

Biden’s embrace of the divest-or-ban bill exemplifies his efforts to contain what administration officials and lawmakers from both parties see as a growing national security threat from China. Nonetheless, he continues to promote his political message on the platform.

None of the influencers who spoke to Bloomberg News said Biden had lost their vote. However, the new law is likely to turn off younger voters, who've propelled the app to mainstream relevance and are key to Democratic electoral wins. Many are already unenthusiastic about Biden’s reelection.

“Election after election, young people continue to show us they understand the stakes of this moment, and will vote like their futures depend on it – because they do,” said Seth Schuster, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign.

Kenny Walden, who has 167,000 TikTok followers and has attended White House events, posted a video on the platform expressing confusion over Biden’s decision to back the bill over privacy and data security concerns.

“I’m against it, Joe,” said Walden, whose content focuses on encouraging people to vote for Biden. The president is silencing his “front-line of defense,” he added, referring to creators like him.

Opponents of the bill say it threatens freedom of speech and singles out the social media platform over others collecting users’ data.

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