Harris Joins TikTok, Another Sign of the App’s Value in Reaching Young Voters

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is now officially on TikTok.

Ever since President Biden announced on Sunday that he would no longer be running for re-election and instead endorsed his vice president for the job, the social media platform has been inundated with memes about coconut trees, Brat summer and other fawning content related to Ms. Harris.

On Thursday night, Ms. Harris joined the party, launching her own account with a video in which she stated simply that she “thought I would get on here myself.”

Within six hours, the eight-second post had been viewed 5.8 million times, and Ms. Harris had reeled in more than 1.1 million followers.

Her arrival is the latest sign of the site’s growing importance for politicians seeking to reach young, highly online audiences. Although TikTok has fewer people on it in the United States than Facebook does, its demographics tilt far more heavily toward people under 35. More than a third of the 170 million people on TikTok say they use it to keep abreast of politics and political issues, according to a recent survey by Pew Research, a considerably higher share than those on Facebook or Instagram.