Republican lawmakers urge Biden to deactivate campaign TikTok account
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[February 20, 2024]
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of 18 Republican lawmakers has urged
President Joe Biden to deactivate his campaign's TikTok account citing
national security concerns.
The lawmakers in a letter seen by Reuters said Biden was "ignoring
TikTok's well-established national security risks. How can the federal
government warn Americans about the risks of this app if the Commander
in Chief uses it, too?"
Biden's campaign joined the short-video app TikTok on Feb. 11 and comes
as he is courting younger voters. The campaign's initial video has now
been seen 9.6 million times and it has about 162,000 followers.
The lawmakers including Senators Marco Rubio, Jerry Moran, John Barrasso,
Marsha Blackburn, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley urged Biden to "delete
your account and publicly acknowledge the national security threat posed
by TikTok."
The White House and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment on
the letter Monday, while the Biden campaign declined comment.
Last week, Democratic Senator Mark Warner raised concerns about the
national security implications of TikTok and the Biden campaign decision
to join.
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"I think that we still need to find a way to follow India, which has
prohibited TikTok," said Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence
Committee. "I'm a little worried about a mixed message."
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![](../images/022024PIX/news_q4.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to members of the press after a
weekend in Delaware, on the South Lawn of the White House in
Washington, U.S., February 19, 2024. REUTERS/Bonnie Cash
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Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday reiterated
her call to ban TikTok. "We should have banned it from the
beginning. It is incredibly dangerous," she said during a Fox News
event.
Efforts in Congress to ban TikTok or create new tools to restrict it
have stalled, while some lawmakers want the Commerce Department to
put China-based TikTok parent ByteDance on an export control list.
Last month, TikTok told Congress that 170 million Americans now use
the app, up from 150 million a year earlier.
The White House noted last week a ban on the use of TikTok on
government devices approved by Congress in 2022 and signed by Biden
remains in force.
The U.S. Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United
States (CFIUS) in March 2023 demanded TikTok's Chinese owners sell
their shares, or face the possibility of the app being banned,
Reuters and other outlets reported, but the administration has taken
no action.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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