TikTok Influencers Receive White House Briefing on Russia-Ukraine Crisis; Jen Psaki Also Tells Them Russia Hacked 2016 Election

The White House held a Zoom meeting with 30 TikTok influencers about the Russia-Ukraine crisis on Thursday.

Ukrainian-born Jules Suzdaltsev, who runs the news account Good Morning, Bad News, said the White House briefing was a positive step in terms of the administration's recognition of TikTok's influence and creator's ability to connect with a broad audience, Insider reported.

Suzdaltsev noted that TikTok gets such a wide reach, particularly among young people interested in news. The hashtag "#NewsTok" has 123 million views, while "#News" has more than 37 billion.

Many TikTok creators create long-form videos called "video essays" in sharing news and historical information. Hosted by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the Zoom meeting focused on the United States' involvement in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Special adviser for communications at the White House National Security Council Matt Miller also attended the Zoom briefing. Suzdaltsev said he was invited by Gen Z for Change a day before the call.

The Gen Z for Change, a nonprofit organization specializing in social media and justice advocacy, was the one who invited all the TikTokers and prepped questions for the administration officials, The Washington Post reported.

Kahlil Greene, a self-described "Gen Z Historian" with over 500,000 followers, was also invited to the meeting and news TikToker Marcus DiPaola, who had more than 3.5 million followers.

Suzdaltsev, who has over 1.1 million followers, said the nature of the Zoom call with other TikTok influencers was not "super serious" and just covered talking points that the administration of President Joe Biden has previously made like how the United States is providing humanitarian aid and doing what they can in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

White House Zoom Meeting With TikTok Influencers

According to The Hill, TikTok influencers were briefed on the "strategic goals in the region" while National Security Council staffers and Jen Psaki answered questions on distributing aid to Ukrainians.

White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty said the Biden administration recognizes that this was a critically important avenue for the American public to get the latest information.

Flaherty added that they wanted to ensure that the influencers had the "latest information from an authoritative source."

Ukrainian American TikTok creator Aaron Parnas, who has 1.2 million followers, tweeted on Friday that he was blessed to have had the opportunity to attend a White House briefing to be "armed with accurate information about how America is helping Ukraine and our European allies."

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Tells TikTok Influencers Russia Hacked 2016 Election

Jen Psaki also took the opportunity to talk about other matters during the Zoom call with TikTok influencers. During the Zoom briefing, Psaki alleged that the Russian government "hacked" the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Over the last several months, Psaki said the U.S. government has decided to declassify information relevant to the public, unlike previous diplomatic conflicts with Russia, since the best antidote to disinformation is the truth.

"If you look back at 2014, and even 2016, when Russia invaded Ukraine and then in 2016, when they, you know, of course, hacked our election here, we did not do that, we did not declassify information," Psaki told the TikTok influencers.

However, according to Fox News, there is no evidence that Russian hackers tampered with election results as part of the 2016 hacking spree even though they were behind the stealing of emails from Democratic officials like John Podesta.

A National Security Council official said they think they have now built up "a bit of credibility" after they correctly predicted that Ukraine would be invaded.

The White House has already tapped TikTok influencers before as well as Twitch and YouTube creators to promote the COVID-19 vaccine and help counter misinformation, with infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci joining them.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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