Ernst Demands Biden Halt TikTok Use
Poses national security threat as long as TikTok is under Chinese ownership.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Representative Troy E. Nehls (R-Texas) called on President Joe Biden to suspend his use of TikTok as long as it is owned by a Chinese company.
The same week the president signed legislation to end the national security risk TikTok poses, his campaign doubled down on continuing to use the app.
“You signed into law H.R. 815, legislation formalizing what we have known for a long time—TikTok is a national security threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Yet your presidential campaign defiantly continues to use TikTok, ignoring the serious concerns your own administration’s officials have raised. We call on you to suspend the use of your TikTok account until ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, sells the application to a responsible U.S. buyer,” they wrote.
In the letter, the lawmakers cited members of President Biden’s own administration, including John Kirby and Jake Sullivan, warning against the threat of TikTok under its current ownership.
They also pointed out that, “Rob Flaherty, your campaign’s deputy manager, defended the campaign’s decision to keep using TikTok, saying, ‘We would be silly to write off any place where people are getting information about the president.’ We disagree. What would be silly is to prioritize politics over protecting national security.”
“The national security threats TikTok poses are grave. Until TikTok is out of CCP hands, we call on you to suspend your TikTok account. Leadership starts at the very top, and we hope you can set a good example to the many Americans using TikTok by suspending the use of this application until we know for sure that it is safe for use,” they concluded.
Read the full letter here.
###
