Joe Biden

Joe Biden served as the 46th President of the United States from 2021 to 2025, after 36 years representing Delaware in the U.S. Senate and eight as the 47th Vice President. The two events on this page that bear directly on digital politics are the TikTok divestiture law and his withdrawal from the 2024 race.

The TikTok Law

On April 24, 2024 Biden signed H.R. 815, which became Public Law 118-50. The bill was principally an emergency supplemental appropriation for Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific; Division H of it is the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which required divestiture of TikTok from its Chinese parent or barred its distribution in the United States. Division I, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, addressed data transfers separately.

Attaching the platform provisions to a supplemental appropriations bill is what carried them: the measure had failed to advance on its own. The Supreme Court upheld Division H against a First Amendment challenge in TikTok Inc. v. Garland on January 17, 2025, three days before Biden left office.

Withdrawal from the 2024 Race

On the evening of July 24, 2024, Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office to explain his decision not to seek re-election, saying “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation” and that “nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.” The nomination passed to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Communication Style

Biden’s presidency is often contrasted with his predecessor’s for its comparative absence of direct, unmediated posting by the president himself; official communication ran mainly through the press office and prepared remarks. That contrast is a matter of record in the archive of his administration’s own publications, but characterisations of its effectiveness are contested and are not asserted here.