When Simon Harris became Ireland¡¯s prime minister-in-waiting in March, he turned to a favored platform to express himself: TikTok.

In a video with ¡°thank you¡± written in yellow lettering, the man who will be Ireland¡¯s youngest taoiseach told his 95,000 followers of his rise from an ¡°opinionated, moody teenager¡± bristling at lack of educational help for his autistic brother.

Harris, sometimes dubbed the ¡°TikTok taoiseach,¡± is among a vanguard of European politicians embracing the Chinese-owned social media platform, calculating that the need to reach younger voters outweighs security concerns.