Will TikTok play a role in the presidential election?

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The popular TikTok app has been under fire in recent months.

Some U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle have called it a communist Chinese tool to influence Americans and are working to ban the application. However, both presidential front runners have accounts to reach young voters.

Pinellas County school teacher Brandt Robinson teaches history but is also a TikTok creator and has a following of more than 50,000 followers. He has used the app since August 2020. He says it’s a great tool.

“Most of my videos are either about some kind of historical topic, or I also teach sociology, so something about sociology or current events,” Robinson said.

His first video was directed at then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.

“So everything that was happening in the summer with policing, me, a guy who has a master’s degree in African-American history, I had some thoughts about what candidate Biden should say about race and policing,” Robinson said.

The video went viral and garnered more than 120,000 views in a day. He says he realized the platform is a powerful tool, and both the Biden and Trump campaigns believe the same.

University of South Florida professor Dr. Joshua Scacco says the platform is a way to reach young voters.

“To give you an idea, the PEW Research Center estimates that approximately a third of Americans at some point during their media habits and routines stumble across some sort of TikTok content. That number increases to over 60 percent among 18 to 29 year olds,” Scacco said.

Both presidential candidates have expressed concerns about the app but embrace it now for their campaign. After the election, it could be a different story.