TikTok under fire as users disseminate Usama bin Laden's 'Letter to America'
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tells 'Hannity' that TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party-linked propaganda machine.
President Biden's re-election campaign is reportedly weighing privately whether to join the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok.
Axios first reported on Friday that Biden's team was considering using the platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, though a spokesman for the president's re-election downplayed the story.
The president's talks about potentially joining TikTok come after his administration banned the app from being used on federal devices earlier this year.
EXPERTS RAISE ALARM AFTER BIDEN STRIKES AGREEMENT WITH CHINA TO SHUT DOWN FOSSIL FUELS
A new report revealed that President Biden's re-election campaign is privately weighing joining the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration set a 30-day deadline in late February for government agencies to purge the app from federal devices.
The Chinese-owned social media platform is incredibly popular among younger Americans. Biden has joined forces with TikTok influencers amid his re-election run, and the Democratic National Committee itself joined the platform.
However, the president's campaign joining the Beijing-based social media platform could present unique security risks for Biden.
Most notably, the Chinese Communist Party's cybersecurity law allows government authorities to access companies' data.
The Chinese Communist Party's cybersecurity law allows government authorities to access companies' data. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via AP)
Many Republicans resist using TikTok due to data security concerns, while an increasing number of Democrats, notably those with aspirations for higher office, have adopted the platform.
The Biden campaign pointed to a social media post published by spokesperson TJ Ducklo, who appeared to confirm that the campaign had at least discussed the possibility. Responding to the report on X, Ducklo wrote, "[laugh out loud] this is not a scoop."
"Campaigns talk about a bunch of stuff and some we do and a bunch we don’t," Ducklo wrote.
"If we have news to share we’ll let yall know!" Ducklo added.
Parents Defending Education founder and president Nikki Neily connected the story to a recent revival of a terrorist's defense of 9/11.
"Two days ago: Young people on TikTok are proudly spreading Osama Bin Laden’s infamous ‘Letter to America’ that blames America for 9/11 and calls for the destruction of Israel," Neily wrote.
"Today: Biden campaign is considering joining TikTok to ‘reach more young voters,’" she continued, sharing screenshots of a pair of posts.
TikTok said it will remove videos promoting bin Laden's infamous pro-terrorism "Letter to America," citing violations of its rules on supporting any form of terrorism.
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The anti-American and antisemitic letter went viral this week after being unearthed by social media users, prompting Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., to call for a ban on TikTok.
"Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism. We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform," a TikTok spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The spokesperson also said "the number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate."
FOX Business' Brian Flood and Joseph Wulfohn contributed to this report.
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