President Joe Biden’s administration "has done nothing" to protect Americans and United States security from Chinese spying and data collection through apps like TikTok, says Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb.
"Some time ago, the Federal Communications Commission commissioner called TikTok, a 'sophisticated surveillance tool that poses an unacceptable national security risk,'" Flood said Saturday during an appearance on Newsmax TV's "Wake Up America."
"Unfortunately, Joe Biden has done nothing to protect America from the Chinese Communist Party spying on our country from TikTok, to Huawei software in cell towers near sensitive military installations in Nebraska, to a balloon floating across the country, every initiative taken to protect our country from the CCP has been led by Republicans, and that's unfortunate."
CNN Business reported Feb. 12 that Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that a bill banning TikTok in the United States "should be looked at" because of the company’s ties to the CCP.
"We do know there’s Chinese ownership of the company that owns TikTok. And there are some people in the Commerce Committee that are looking into that right now," CNN reported Schumer telling ABC News last week. "We’ll see where they come out."
While already banned on federal employee devices and in more than half of the states in the country, some state lawmakers are hesitant to vote for an outright ban of the service that is estimated to be used by two-thirds of American teens, the Associated Press reported Friday.
"What’s next, right? Today it’s TikTok. Tomorrow it’s Twitter or Facebook," Kansas State Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Kansas City-area Democrat, said in the report as that state considers a ban. "It’s important for us to be able to communicate with our constituents however we want to."
The discussion over TikTok follows increased tensions between the countries after an errant high-altitude Chinese balloon traversed the continental U.S. and had to be shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.
"This should be a bipartisan issue," Flood said Saturday.
"As China challenges, the U.S., the Biden administration seems more intent on the finer points of diplomatic decorum than putting America's interest first. I truly believe that TikTok, the Huawei equipment in cellphone towers, the CCP’s efforts to buy real estate near sensitive military bases in North Dakota, when you put it all together, we're dealing with an immediate national security threat, not a diplomatic dance that the president wants to do."
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