Top Democratic Rep. Thompson joins Chinese-owned TikTok despite voting to keep app off DHS devices
NEWYou can now pay attention to Fox News article content!
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson encouraged his supporters to comply with his newly designed TikTok account inspite of warnings from a lot of officers that it poses a national protection hazard and a vote from Thompson in March to ban Office of Homeland Protection workforce from making use of the platform.
“Abide by my new account on TikTok. (benniegthompson),” the Mississippi Democrat, who chairs the Property Homeland Security Committee and the Jan. 6 Decide on Committee tweeted on July 1.
Thompson’s confirmed account has not however posted any films and has 54 followers as of Friday afternoon.
Thompson’s entrance onto the TikTok system arrives months after he supported a motion through voice vote on the Household Homeland Safety Committee to ban Department of Homeland Protection employees from making use of or downloading the China based mostly app.
GOP SENATORS Press BIDEN ADMIN ON ENFORCEMENT OF TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL Buy ON TIKTOK
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Overlook., speaks as the Household pick committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack
(AP Picture/Susan Walsh)
Thompson’s transfer to TikTok also came times just after FCC commissioner Brendan Carr urged Apple and Google to take away the app from their platforms because of to the possible nationwide stability hazard it poses by possibly enabling the Chinese federal government to obtain consumer facts.
“TikTok is not what it seems to be on the area. It is not just an app for sharing funning video clips or memes. That’s the sheep’s clothes,” Carr wrote. “At its core, TikTok capabilities as a sophisticated surveillance resource that harvests comprehensive quantities of private and sensitive facts.”
ELON MUSK Concerns Regardless of whether TIKTOK IS ‘DESTROYING CIVILIZATION’
TikTok, readily available to millions of Us residents via Apple and Google online shops, is owned by the Beijing-primarily based firm ByteDance, an firm that Carr asserts is “behold to the Communist Get together of China and essential by Chinese legislation to comply with the PRC’s surveillance needs.”
This 7 days, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio identified as on the Federal Trade Commission to examine stories that TikTok allowed engineers and executives in China to obtain non-public information of U.S. end users.
TEXAS Teenagers ARRESTED Just after TIKTOK Problem Phone calls FOR THEM TO KICK Doors, Run Away
A look at of the TikTok app brand, in Tokyo.
(AP Image/Kiichiro Sato)
“It is further than time to ban TikTok. All people appreciates that the application destinations tens of millions of Americans’ information at possibility, and the Biden Administration has no excuse not to act,” Rubio told Fox Information Electronic on Friday.
TikTok’s guardian firm, ByteDance, is necessary underneath Chinese legislation to share its data with the Chinese Communist Occasion anytime requested.
TikTok, in a statement to Company Insider previous thirty day period, defended its facts sharing techniques.
Simply click Right here TO GET THE FOX News App
“As we have publicly stated, we’ve brought in globe course interior and exterior security specialists to assist us strengthen our info stability attempts. This is common marketplace exercise presented the complexity of data security issues,” the firm’s statement mentioned.
Homeland Security Committee Vice Position Member Rep. Michael Visitor, who sponsored the drive to prohibit DHS staff from employing TikTok, instructed Fox Information Electronic in a statement that his laws was aimed at addressing the menace China poses to the United States.
“TikTok poses a real and speedy danger to the American community and U.S. national safety, as a massive technical collection platform operated at the behest of the Chinese Communist Celebration (CCP),” Visitor said.
“This has been further more confirmed by the latest reporting that TikTok consumer facts is available by China and by extension the CCP. For this explanation, I launched legislation, that was handed by the Homeland Safety Committee in a bipartisan fashion, to beat this incredibly menace, prohibiting TikTok from currently being downloaded on all DHS devices. China poses the finest 50 year menace to the homeland and we must address it head-on right before it’s too late.”
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Skip., fulfills with the decide on committee on the Jan. 6 assault.
(AP Image/Andrew Harnik)
Thompson’s business did not answer to multiple requests for remark from Fox Information Digital.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.