Rep. Troy E. Nehls and Sen. Joni Ernst Call on President Biden to Suspend His Use of TikTok

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Congressman Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22)joined Senator Joni Erst (R-IA) in calling on President Joe Biden to suspend his use of TikTok as long as it is owned by a Chinese company.

Last week, President Biden signed legislation into law to end the national security risk TikTok poses. Despite doing so, his campaign doubled down on continuing to use the app.

"Despite signing legislation into law acknowledging the national security threat posed by TikTok, Joe Biden's presidential campaign continues using TikTok, blatantly ignoring the grave concerns his own administration's officials have raised," said Congressman Nehls. "By continuing to use TikTok, Joe Biden is putting politics over the safety of the American people. I'm proud to join Senator Ernst in calling on Joe Biden to suspend the use of his campaign's TikTok account until it is out of the CCP's hands and put the American people first."

Read the full letter HEREor below:

Dear President Biden,

This week, 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.

We should not need to remind you why your campaign's use of TikTok is dangerous. Senior officials in your administration have repeatedly pointed out the grave national security risks TikTok causes under its current ownership. On March 17, John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, said, "We are concerned, as every American ought to be concerned, about data security and what ByteDance and what the Chinese Communist Party can do with the information they can glean off of Americans' use of the application." Likewise, on March 12, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan expressed his support for forcing ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, asking whether "we want the data from TikTok, children's data, and adults' data, to be staying here in America or going to China?"

TikTok has a proven track record of spying on U.S. citizens. China-based ByteDance executives used TikTok to spy on American journalists reporting on the application's CCP ties. ByteDance employees reportedly even had access to a search tool allowing them to access the friends list of U.S. politicians and their families-including members of your own family.

Meanwhile, the CCP is reportedly refusing to green-light the divestiture of TikTok from a Chinese-owned company. According to reports, "China is widely expected to block a deal" to keep TikTok operating in the United States, despite ByteDance standing to see a windfall of tens of billions of dollars, an investor's dream. This begs the question: If TikTok's value to ByteDance and China isn't to turn a profit, why is it valuable to them?

Unfortunately, your campaign appears poised to ignore your own administration officials' warnings. On February 12, 2024, your campaign joined TikTok, despite the long-standing security problems associated with using the CCP spyware. We are similarly worried that many members of your party also have TikTok accounts, using it to disseminate their political message despite the risks associated with the application.

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 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.

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