Biden move to TikTok 'desperate' and 'very worrisome,' says former CCP member
The president 'naive' to give CCP access to U.S. data through TikTok, Chinese immigrant says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden joining TikTok is a "desperate" attempt to appeal to young voters and shows his administration’s naïveté about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) reach, said a Chinese immigrant and former party member.
"He's our U.S. president. Is he aware of the potential risks of using that platform? That all the data are basically subject to CCP use?" said Lily Tang Williams, a Republican running for Congress in New Hampshire’s second district.
Williams said she was surprised to hear the president had joined the social media app since his administration mandated federal agencies remove TikTok from employee's phones and systems last year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Maybe he's desperate. He needs young people's votes," she told Fox News Digital.
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Biden's re-election campaign launched a TikTok account Sunday with a Super Bowl-themed video. It was released around the same time presidents traditionally give pre-game interviews, which Biden has declined two years in a row.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The campaign’s first post on the Chinese-owned social media platform with 170 million U.S. users was captioned "lol hey guys" and showed Biden answering lighthearted Super Bowl-related questions such as "game or commercials" and "Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce?" Despite data security concerns surrounding the company, the Biden-Harris HQ account has acquired nearly 100,000 followers and posted four more videos attacking former President Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 election.
"He chose TikTok because he knows that's where lots of Gen Z's young voters are, and they're easily manipulated and controlled and brainwashed to continue to vote for them," Williams, who lived through Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, said. "You’ve got a lot of young people who don't understand politics. They might be still living in their mom and dad’s basement, and they bought into this woke culture today."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Congressional candidate Lily Tang Williams said all the data on TikTok is "basically subject to CCP use" after the Biden campaign launched an account on the platform. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
The Biden administration banned the social media platform from federal devices amid concerns that the Chinese government could obtain access to government information via the application.
The Biden campaign said it considered establishing a TikTok account for months and ultimately created one at the urging of youth activists and organizations, who argued that the app was key to reaching young voters. The campaign said it's using a separate cellphone to engage on TikTok in order to isolate using the app from other work streams and communications, including emails.
It also said it was taking additional steps but declined to provide details, citing security concerns.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said during a Monday press briefing 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."
China maintains tight control over the media and technology its citizens consume and blocks most Western social media apps, according to Williams, a former CCP member. The government "watches everything you do on your cell phone," she said.
"As long as TikTok is a part of a Chinese company and all the user data are not safe, all the apps on your cell phones are not safe," she told Fox News. "If they don't allow their people access to the full and true internet, why are we so naive to let them access everything here?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden skipped the Super Bowl Sunday interview for the second straight year but his campaign posted a message from the president on TikTok. (Screenshot/Biden speech)
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Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with that country's authoritarian government. Separately, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been reviewing the app for years while trying unsuccessfully to force TikTok ownership to divest from its parent company. The White House said Monday the review is ongoing.
"The CCP is far away, but their arms are here, their operatives are here, and… their arm is extending all over the Western countries to influence elections, to control the culture and to promote pro-CCP agendas," Williams said. "It's very worrisome."