Social Media Influencers Are Coming to the White House, Where Biden Calls Them a New ‘News Source’

WASHINGTON — Social media influencers got the royal treatment at the White House on Wednesday as President Joe Biden acknowledged their ability to influence millions of loyal followers.

The White House hosted a group of more than 100 influencers, also known as content creators, from across media platforms — from chefs and makeup artists to fitness gurus and medical students — to talk about issues including mental health, equal pay and the overuse of artificial intelligence.

Biden dropped in to tell influential figures gathered in the Indian Treaty Room in the White House complex: “The fact is, you are the future.”

“You are the source of the news,” he said. “You are the new possibilities. You are the new breakthrough in the way we communicate.”

Biden added with a laugh: “And that’s why I invited you to the White House, because I’m looking for a job.”

Participants included makeup artist Jackie Aina, chef My Nguyen and medical student Joel Bervell. Together, the influencers have millions of followers.

Underscoring the importance and weight of the content creator economy, valued at about $250 billion globally, the White House is also recognizing the youth voices that will be a key constituency for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump in the November election.

In late July, a coalition of 17 youth-led groups endorsed the vice president. Progressive youth-led organizations have warned for months that Biden, 81, has a problem with young voters, pleading with the president to work more closely with them to refocus on the issues most important to younger generations or risk losing votes. They hope Harris can tap into a new explosion of energy among young voters.

Trump has also spent time courting influence. Interestingly, his campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him an advantage in November.

Trump sat down for an interview last week with Twitch streamer and internet personality Adine Ross, who has more than 7 million followers on Instagram. The internet personality ended his interview with the former president by gifting him a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in images of Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt.

The White House event comes as the Biden administration is embroiled in a legal battle with TikTok over a federal law that will determine the platform’s future in the U.S.

Many creators who make money on TikTok are opposing the bill, which would require ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the popular platform to a U.S.-approved buyer or face a ban.

In May, TikTok and ByteDance sued the company to block the bill, arguing that it was not commercially, legally or technologically possible to withdraw their investment and that they would have to shut down their U.S. platforms by January 19 if the bill went into effect.

The bill comes after bipartisan support in Congress and from top administration officials who have raised concerns about the Chinese government’s influence on ByteDance.

TikTok had previously been in negotiations with the Biden administration to address some of these concerns. However, those talks fell through before the two sides reached an agreement.

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Hadero was from South Bend, Indiana.