Representative Troy Nehls (R-TX) alongside Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) led 14 U.S. lawmakers in writing a letter to President Joe Biden (D), demanding that he delete his TikTok account.
TikTok is owned by the Chinese-owned, CCP-controlled parent company, ByteDance. Many Republicans have shared their displeasures with TikTok after details emerged concerning the company holding the personal data of 150 million American users of the app.
President Biden even banned TikTok from government devices in late 2022. His campaign first posted on its TikTok account on Super Bowl Sunday.
In a statement separate from the letter, Rep. Nehls said that Biden needs to delete his account to “prioritize our nation’s national security.”
“I am proud to join Senator Rubio in leading this effort,” said Congressman Nehls. “TikTok is a national security threat, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Joe Biden needs to immediately delete his TikTok account in order to prioritize our nation’s national security and put America first.”
In the letter, the U.S. lawmakers wrote, “On February 11, 2024, during Super Bowl LVIII, your campaign made its first post on TikTok, a social-media platform owned by ByteDance, a company subject to the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok endangers national security, and this concern is aggravated by the platform’s appeal to young people in the United States. We therefore urge you to delete your account and set a better example for the American people by restating that TikTok is a national security threat.”
They continued, “In short, 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.
“How can the federal government warn Americans about the risks of this app if the Commander in Chief uses it, too? Why should government employees be expected to honor a ban on official devices when the President rebuts the core justification for the law? And why should Americans believe you will protect them from foreign threats, when your use of the platform suggests disregard for well-known national security threats? The office of the presidency is about leadership. By downloading TikTok, you are setting a poor example for the American people, while making them less safe for the bargain,” they wrote.
Alongside Rep. Nehls and Sen. Rubio, those who signed the letter include Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Representatives Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Bill Posey (R-FL), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Aaron Bean (R-FL), John Rutherford (R-FL), Barry Moore (R-AL), Michael Waltz (R-FL), and Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-GA),
