A coalition of 18 Republican lawmakers is calling on President Joe Biden to ditch TikTok on his 2024 reelection campaign citing profound worries over national security. The legislators delivered a resounding message to the White House, emphasizing the potential risks posed by the popular social media app.
The letter, dated February 16, directly addressed President Biden, urging him to ditch TikTok and set a paramount example for the nation. “TikTok endangers national security, and this concern is aggravated by the platform’s appeal to young people in the United States,” the letter reads.
Signed by influential figures including Senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley, among others, the missive highlights growing bipartisan apprehension toward the app’s ownership by the Chinese conglomerate ByteDance.
Ditch TikTok
The timing of President Biden’s campaign team’s recent foray onto TikTok during Super Bowl LVIII stirred further controversy. Despite previous legislative action by the Biden administration to ban TikTok’s use on government devices in December 2022, the decision to engage with the platform sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill.
“TikTok has been a topic of bipartisan concern in recent years,” the letter underscores, pointing to a wider acknowledgment of the potential exploitation of sensitive user data and the dissemination of misinformation.
The Republicans didn’t mince words, highlighting the glaring inconsistency between the administration’s past stance on TikTok and its recent embrace of the platform. “There was a time when your administration publicly stated the threat posed by TikTok. It is incredibly troubling, then, that you are now ignoring TikTok’s well-established national security risks,” the letter asserts, questioning the credibility of the administration’s commitment to safeguarding the nation’s security.
In a final plea, the Republican lawmakers urged President Biden’s campaign team to delete their TikTok accounts and publicly acknowledge the security risks posed by the app, underscoring the paramount importance of leadership and setting a precedent for national security.
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