Trump, Biden fight for primacy on social media platforms

On an aver day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million. numbers are similarly skewed in or spheres of social media landscape.

On Twitter, Trump's 82.4 million followers dwarf Biden’s 6.4 million. president has spent years cultivating a ragtag digital “army” of meme makers and political influencers who retweet campaign messs hundreds of times daily. Trump is outspending Biden on Google and YouTube vertising by nearly 3 to 1.

As his reelection bid faces growing obstacles, his primacy in dizzying digital world is one of his top vants, giving him a massive platform to connect with supporters and push a mess that igres his vulnerabilities related to pandemic, unemployment and race relations. Biden and his allies are w working feverishly to establish a social media force of ir own.

For first time, Biden outspent Trump on Facebook vertising in June, pouring twice as much money into platform as president. His campaign is recruiting Instagram supporters to hold virtual fundraisers. And it’s plotting ways to mobilize power of hundreds of teens on TikTok who reserved tickets for Trump's recent Oklahoma campaign rally and took credit for sinking event by artificially inflating crowd count before it began. But Trump's he start may be tough to overcome.

“Vice President Biden and Trump have very different challenges right w," said Tara McGowan, founder of liberal digital firm Acronym and former digital director for Democratic super PAC Priorities USA during 2016 campaign. "Trump needs to hold his base ... and Vice President Biden needs to define and in a lot of ways introduce himself to you new voters, and potential supporters.”

But Trump's unimpeded access to digital microphone is facing its limits. Twitter is beginning to fact check Trump's posts, including one that me unfounded claims that mail-in voting would le to fraud. company also alerted users when president posted a manipulated video, and it hid his Twitter threat about shooting looters in Minneapolis.

Under pressure in June as major companies yanked vertising from its site, Facebook promised it would label Trump posts when y break rules around voting or hate speech. Video messaging platform Snapchat last month also said it would keep president's account active and searchable but would stop showcasing his profile on platform. And in a move to clamp down on hate and violent speech, online comment forum Reddit decided to ban one of president's most prolific fan forums, _Donald. Trump and Biden have strikingly divergent tactics on social media.

A centerpiece of Trump’s digital efforts is Team Trump Online! nightly live brocasts streamed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Twitch, an online streaming platform. brocasts feature top Trump surrogates including daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump also tweets with far greater velocity, sending more than 160 Twitter messs during a seven-day period starting June 14, an Associated Press analysis of Trump and Biden's accounts reveals. More than 50 of Trump's posts were retweets from an assortment of users that included U.S. Army, far-right meme makers, conservative news outlets, little-kwn congressional candidates and anymous accounts that in some cases promoted conspiracy ories. president's stey retweets of everyday users helps fans feel connected to him, said Logan Cook, a Kansas internet meme maker whose work Trump has regularly promoted on his social media accounts.

"President Trump’s team, y’re blending in with social media culture, which is also why y’re getting into so much trouble," said Cook, whose Twitter account @CarpeDonktum was permanently suspended last week for copyright violations. His memes are controversial because he alters videos to mock Trump's political rivals, including Biden.

Twitter users celebrate being retweeted by president, or his inner circle, like president's son, Donald Trump Jr., who has more than 5 million followers. Trump's followers see producing sardonic memes or videos as a game where ultimate prize is a retweet from president, said Misha Leybovich, a tech entrepreneur who produces social media engment products that support Democratic candidates and causes.

“ fan base is having a blast,” Leybovich said. “If y never gave fans ability to be amplified by president, stakes would be lower.”

Biden has stuck to a more conventional approach, tweeting nearly 60 messs during that same time, only a handful of which were retweets from verified accounts, like former President Barack Obama, or established news outlets. Every video Biden tweeted out over that week in June was produced by his own campaign. But effectiveness of campaign messaging isn't just about numbers, said Jennifer Mercieca, a political rhetoric professor at Texas A&M University.

“If you want to compare attention and engment metrics, it might look like Trump is way ahe, but that attention and outr isn’t always good," Mercieca said. "When a child is throwing a tantrum, you’re giving m attention, but it’s t because you approve of ir behavior.”

Indeed, Biden campaign argues that despite being outmatched on social media, ir engment is strong.

“ way that y treat ir supporters, it’s about distraction. It’s about keeping m angry,” said Rob Friedlander, Biden campaign digital director. “For us it’s about, how do we make you feel like you’re brought into campaign."

campaign is creating Facebook groups, holding virtual events on Instagram and partnering with social media influencers who create posts in support of campaign. One such group is an Instagram account called Bakers for Biden,which bakes bre and ships sourdough starters across country in exchange for donations to Biden. group was born out of what Brooklyn marketing executive Domenic Venuto first saw as an inequate response from Biden’s campaign to Trump’s taunts and conspiracy ories. Venuto said he's come to understand campaign's digital strategy of igring Trump's attacks.

“y’ve been very good at promoting values and shying away from being baited into same tactics (as Trump campaign),” Venuto said.