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Dem Senator admits Trump ‘was right’, urges parents to get their kids off TikTok: ‘Enormous threat’

November 22, 2022 | | Print Article

Democrats “want political gain at the expense of U.S. national security” but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and counter-terrorism analysts are urging parents to get their kids off TikTok if Washington won’t ban the dangerous app outright.

“We know that engineers in China can access Americans’ data when they use this platform,” said Kara Frederick, a former counterterrorism analyst for the Defense Department, on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday. “So there’s no question it is a CCP, a Chinese Communist Party, spy app. And Americans are using it. They should get off.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va, a vocal advocate of banning the Byte Dance-owned product, warned that it is a major threat to America.

“Well, I think Donald Trump was right. I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat,” Warner told “Fox News Sunday.”

“So, if you’re a parent, and you’ve got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned. All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing,” he warned.

(Video: Fox News)

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called on regulators to ban the app in the U.S., and FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that it contributes to China’s status as the No. 1 thief of U.S. data in the world.

While security officials warn of the app’s potential national security risks, the Biden administration and former President Obama use the app the reach potential voters. Biden met with a transgender TikTok creator in October, clouding the waters and muddying the message for the American people as the app’s usage continued to grow.

“In 2020, 9% of those age 18 to 29 got their news from TikTok,” host Brian Kilmeade said. “Now it’s up to 18% two years ago and this year 26%. Only looking to grow. In fact, you see President Biden inviting bizarre TikTokers to the White House. You see President Obama sitting Indian-style on the ground talking to a TikToker. Do they not realize what Senator Warner just said?”

It’s not a matter of “if” they know but rather why don’t they care, Frederick said.

“They absolutely realize it. Again, there is no question that given the national intelligence law that China has, they have to — private companies have to give information to the Chinese Communist Party. So we know that lawmakers know this but they are so reflexively anti-Trump. Because Trump had an executive order that said TikTok should not be born, we should give it to a U.S. company to preserve and safe-keep Americans’ data, they are like ‘absolutely not. We are going to court the younger generation.'”

Grooming the 30 percent of 9- 11-year-old future voters who use TikTok is of more value than protecting American privacy, Frederick said.

“Biden wants those voters,” the research fellow for the Heritage Foundation said. “The Democratic Party wants those voters, so they are using this platform over and over again. They want political gain at the expense of U.S. national security.”

TikTok’s unique user interface has driven the app’s success and to date, other social media apps have not been able to replicate the Chinese-owned app’s machine-earning algorithm and until one does, Frederick does not see the appeal of the app dimming anytime soon. Without a natural turn away from the app, legislative intervention is imperative.

“China’s vast hacking program is the world’s largest, and they have stolen more Americans’ personal and business data than every other nation combined,” Wray told lawmakers last week. “[TikTok’s dangers] include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose or to control software on millions of devices, which gives the opportunity to potentially tactically compromise personal devices.”

“I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” he said, adding that there isn’t “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party].”

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