A Republican Congressional candidate and Chinese immigrant called out President Joe Biden’s “desperate” move to join TikTok, warning about the “very worrisome” influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
Lily Tang Williams, who is running for Congress in New Hampshire’s second district, believes the Biden administration is being naive when it comes to the reach of the CCP, of which she is a former 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?” she wondered in an interview with Fox News.
Her comments follow the launch of the president’s TikTok account on Sunday by his re-election campaign and was promoted on X with the message, “Hey by the way, we just joined TikTok.”
Keeping to the day’s theme, the video clip featured short question-and-answer exchanges with Biden related to the Super Bowl.
Hey by the way, we just joined TikTok
Follow us: https://t.co/KbtdOh2O4a pic.twitter.com/vDeXUzhb9W
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 12, 2024
“The President’s TikTok debut last night — with more than 5 million views and counting — is proof positive of both our commitment and success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented, and increasingly personalized media environment,” Rob Flaherty, Biden reelection deputy campaign manager, said in a statement.
The account, which currently has over 114,000 followers, also kicked off its first few posts with videos attacking former President Trump.
But many pointed out Biden’s hypocrisy in taking to the social media platform that is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance considering the administration last year banned the app from being used on federal devices.
“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 grew up under Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, told Fox News Digital.
“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,” she added.
During a press briefing on Monday, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said “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.”
Williams, a former CCP member, warned that the Chinese government “watches everything you do on your cell phone.”
“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?”
“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 added. “It’s very worrisome.”
American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow Michael Sobolik seemed to echo the view.
Think of how this must look to Xi Jinping.
Biden’s own administration has removed TikTok from government devices for security reasons. His own agency heads have called the app a national security threat.
When he campaigned for president in 2020, Biden called TikTok a “matter of… https://t.co/feaD5brhXS
— Michael Sobolik (@michaelsobolik) February 12, 2024
“Joe Biden is so desperate to pander to young voters he’s willing to give away his campaign’s data to Communist China,” Florida Rep. Mike Waltz wrote on X.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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