President Joe Biden has received bipartisan backlash since his presidential campaign joined TikTok despite concerns about the app’s safety.
The
bidenhq account garnered more than 122,000 followers on TikTok within the first few days of joining the Chinese-owned app that he had previously banned from almost 4 million federal employee devices because of national security concerns.
Elected representatives from both parties spoke out against the decision because of data privacy and security concerns with the app’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
“TikTok is a spy app for the Chinese Communist Party,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)
said in a post on social media platform X. “It’s used to push propaganda on American kids and steal data.”
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) criticized the campaign’s use of TikTok by pointing to the law that President Biden signed in December 2022.
“TikTok was banned from all federal government devices because it’s a threat to our national security,” Ms. Ernst
wrote on X. “That didn’t stop the Biden campaign from joining the CCP’s dangerous propaganda app.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican,
posted on X: “Hey [Joe Biden], you’ve done a lot of dumb things over the last 3 years. Handing your data over to China may be the dumbest. Biden is joining TikTok—and partnering with China to spy on the American people.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also expressed worries about the possible consequences of the campaign’s decision and national security implications, according to The Hill.
“I think at the end of the day, the Chinese Communist Party cannot only get access to the data but also, more importantly, can potentially drive the algorithms in terms of what you’re seeing,” Mr. Warner said. “I’m a little worried about a mixed message.”
John Kirby, the national security communications adviser for the White House, stated during a briefing on Feb. 12 that TikTok is still prohibited on devices used by government officials.
“Nothing’s changed about the national security concerns from the [National Security Council’s] perspective about the use of TikTok on government devices,” Mr. Kirby
said. “That policy is still in place.”
The social media account boasts a profile photo displaying the so-called Dark Brandon meme.
It has started posting consistently, including kicking off the account with a video of President Biden talking about the Super Bowl and one condemning President Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v. Wade.
President Biden, in khaki slacks and a navy sweater, stood with his hands in his pockets as he was asked a series of questions. Among them was, “Chiefs or Niners?” Mr. Biden responded: “Two great quarterbacks. Hard to decide, but if I didn’t say I was for the Eagles, then I’d be sleeping alone. My wife’s a Philly girl.”
When asked whether he preferred the game or commercials and the game or the halftime show, President Biden responded “game” twice.
President Biden’s reelection campaign justified its decision,
saying that the account was a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters, even as his administration continued to raise security concerns about whether the popular social media app might be sharing user data with China’s communist regime.
A year ago, it came to light that TikTok had
code capable of keylogging, which means that the application can document every keystroke a user enters on the device, including those entered in email and on websites while using the in-app browser.
And a law passed in China in 2017 grants the CCP access to all data stored by companies in China. Last year, Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok,
provided testimony to Congress stating that the organization continued to store data of American users abroad.
Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.
