Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel
(LifeSiteNews) — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign raised eyebrows Monday when it announced a new social media account on the Chinese-owned video sharing application TikTok despite widely expressed concerns shared by his own administration about the platform’s security risks and alleged status as a data harvesting front for a hostile Communist government.
The campaign made the announcement on Twitter/X with a cross-posted video of the president answering lighthearted questions about the Super Bowl, and a link to the new account:
Hey by the way, we just joined TikTok
Follow us: https://t.co/KbtdOh2O4a pic.twitter.com/vDeXUzhb9W
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) February 12, 2024
The news was quickly met with reactions not just from conservatives but by left-leaning mainstream media outlets such as the Associated Press, ABC News, NBC News, and Mediaite highlighting an ongoing controversy about its Chinese parent company ByteDance’s links to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its military and surveillance operations, which has sparked ongoing national-security concerns over the Chinese government’s access to the personal data of TikTok’s American users.
As noted by the reports, FBI director Christopher Wray has testified to Congress that TikTok “screams out with national security concerns” because it is a “tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government,” that Biden himself signed legislation last year banning its use on government-owned devices, and that his administration has even threatened to ban the app from the United States entirely unless ByteDance sells its stake in the U.S. version of TikTok.
Campaign officials defended the move as part of their commitment to “meeting voters where they are” and “innovating to create content that will resonate with critical audiences” and “core constituencies” while insisting that the campaign is “taking advanced safety precautions around our devices and incorporating a sophisticated security protocol to ensure security.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted Monday that “there are still national security concerns about the use of TikTok on government devices and there’s been no change to our policy not to allow that,” Fox News reported, while declining to comment on the propriety of using the app at all.
The story comes days after U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur released his final report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, which recommended against charging the president in part because his memory was so severely compromised that a jury would find him too sympathetic to punish. That story has renewed vocal concerns among Democrats about their electoral prospects if the 81-year-old Biden is not replaced with a younger presidential nominee for 2024, such as Gavin Newsom or Dean Phillips.
Fluctuating national polls currently have the Republican Party’s expected nominee, former President Donald Trump, narrowly leading a close race with Biden, although voters also say that potential convictions in Trump’s various ongoing trials will make them less likely to support him, which Democrat strategists are banking on keeping Biden palatable enough to moderate voters to be reelected. Additionally, it is not yet certain which candidate would lose more votes to Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s third-party presidential run.
Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel