“This is an opportunity to really give a voice to the thousands of creators and industry experts who think about the creator economy every day.” Christian Thom, the Biden administration's digital strategy director, said on stage Friday.
The Biden administration has made unprecedented efforts to bring content creators into the White House orbit, including hosting receptions and exclusive holiday parties for influencers last year. The administration has worked with influencers to spread the word about initiatives such as the coronavirus vaccine rollout and Biden's “Build Back Better” spending package, and to brief them on key issues such as the war in Ukraine.
But while many creators have been enthusiastic attendees of White House events and parties, Biden's reelection campaign has struggled to gain support from influential younger, Gen Z creators.
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The president’s policies on the Gaza War, climate change and the TikTok ban have led some Gen Z influencers who supported him in 2020 to say they are not supporting his reelection campaign. Since joining TikTok in February, Biden has amassed just 390,000 followers on the app, a fraction of Donald Trump’s 7 million-plus TikTok followers.
At VidCon in Anaheim this week, some creators' dissatisfaction with Biden was evident in the way they reacted to his debate with Trump and the announcement of an August summit aimed at bringing him closer to the White House.
On Thursday night, more than a dozen content creators gathered on couches in a Mickey Mouse-themed house to watch the debate, with the group collectively judging Biden's failures. Almost everyone expressed hope that he would drop out of the race. A major YouTuber with more than 1 million subscribers, who requested anonymity to describe confidential discussions, said he had been approached in recent months to promote Biden's re-election on his channel, but had declined.
On Friday, some content creators attending VidCon were equally unconvinced by the White House's Creator Economy Conference announcement.
One content creator, who goes by the name Conscious Lee and has 2.6 million followers on TikTok, said he wasn't sure if he would attend if asked. “I don’t think they value the creator economy because they criminalized content creation by banning TikTok,” Lee said, adding that he dislikes the Democratic Party’s policies on the Gaza Strip.
Ariana Jasmine Afshar, a Gen Z creator with over 250K followers on TikTok who lives in Oakland, California, writes about news and politics, and said she would decline if invited. “As a Muslim and Middle Eastern creator, I think it’s much better to address issues like Palestine than to host some stupid creator event,” she said.
Tom, the White House official who announced the summit at VidCon, said the Biden administration plans to use the event to hear the concerns of content creators. “The creator community needs to have a voice, and my colleagues and the White House need to have an opportunity to hear from all of you for the first time,” he said.
Sadia Mirza, a 39-year-old content creator from Houston, welcomed the sentiment but said it was unclear what the talks would lead to.
“I think it’s a good thing that the Biden administration is having the conversation, but they’re not having the right conversation,” she said. “Social media is currently silent when it comes to political content, including the impending TikTok ban signed by Biden. “It makes me feel like my real voice and platform is undervalued.”