Claudia Conway's popular, unfiltered TikTok account is a communications problem for the Trump administration

• Claudia Conway, the teenage daughter of the former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is increasingly a thorn in the side of the Trump administration.
• She has more than 1 million followers on TikTok, where she blasts President Donald Trump and broke the news of her mother's coronavirus diagnosis over the weekend.
• "She's an important political figure in her own right and has a bigger and more relevant audience than most mainstream journalists and broadcasters," said Penny CS Andrews, a communications expert.

The TikTok account of an American teen has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on the Trump administration and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Claudia Conway, the 15-year-old daughter of the former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, is an outspoken and often unfiltered critic of the president on TikTok.

She has garnered more than 1 million followers, many of whom see her posts as a direct lens into the administration's workings. They also appear to enjoy the direct insight into Conway family drama, made more delicate by Claudia's discussions about her mental health.

Kellyanne was an adviser to President Donald Trump from 2017 to last month and still acts as an outrider for his administration on news channels.

At times, her daughter's unfiltered, popular posts have undermined her.

Over the weekend, Claudia posted a TikTok video confirming that her mother had tested positive for COVID-19. That post triggered a torrent of news coverage, prompting Kellyanne to publicly confirm her diagnosis.

And her diagnosis contributed to coverage that coronavirus had spread widely in and around the Trump White House, as the president and other members of the administration also tested positive.

As Claudia drove the news cycle, her posts became a lens into her relationship with her mother.

At one point, the teen claimed on TikTok that her mother had lied about a negative coronavirus test, something Kellyanne demanded she publicly correct. Three videos and multiple livestreams on the app — some of which were later made private — charted the family dispute. Videos of Claudia's frank discussions about her mental health were also made private.

Kellyanne's demands to rebut claims on her daughter's TikTok account through the same medium shows the 15-year-old's reach, said Penny CS Andrews, a doctoral researcher in information, media, and communication at the University of Sheffield.

"She's an important political figure in her own right and has a bigger and more relevant audience than most mainstream journalists and broadcasters," they said.

"At a time when people are searching for truth beyond the White House spin, her voice from the inside would be important anyway. But she has also been consistent in her views, and her followers and viewers know she is not just being controversial to upset her parents."

Over the weekend, the teen made a tongue-in-cheek reference to her insider status, writing in one video, "Me deleting all my problematic TikToks before I end up on Fox News again."

Claudia has passed comment on Trump's health as he's treated for COVID-19, describing his stance on wearing masks an example of an "idiot fucking president piece of shit."

In another video she said her followers should "vote him out," and she lambasted Trump's inability to condemn white supremacy in the first presidential debate.

While Claudia's claims that Trump's illness is more serious than the administration has presented aren't verified, her status as an insider has lent them more credence with White House watchers.

Her popularity on TikTok highlights the absence of the Biden and Trump camps from the app and the information gap in terms of reaching younger voters.

Politicians "should definitely be on there, because there's a lot of politics being discussed on that platform," Vincent Raynauld, an associate professor at Emerson College who researches the impact of social media on politics, told Business Insider's Connor Perrett. "There's a lot of energy, there's a lot of excitement, and people are willing to talk about politics and spread messages based on issues and candidates."