WASHINGTON, February 21 Several members of the House of Representatives and senators sent a letter to US President Joe Biden calling on him to delete his account on the social network TikTok, fearing that it poses a threat to national security , the appeal was published on the website of Republican Congressman Troy Nehls.
Earlier in February, the campaign headquarters of US President Joe Biden opened an account on TikTok. At the same time, due to existing concerns, TikTok is already prohibited for use on government electronic media at the federal level. Back in October last year, the head of the US Department of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, noted: the social network definitely poses a threat to national security. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also previously noted that the United States sees TikTok as a threat.
The letter, published on Nehl's website on Wednesday, was signed by 18 senators and members of the House of Representatives.
“We urge you to delete your account and publicly acknowledge the national security threat that TikTok poses,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
In the appeal, legislators reproach the American leader for the fact that, despite his administration’s assurances about the threat posed by the social network, he himself uses it.
«By downloading TikTok, you are setting a bad example for the American people,» the letter states.
In December, the US House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to Chinese e-commerce companies, including TikTok and Alibaba, expressing concern about the security of personal data of American users and possible human rights violations in their work.
The social network TikTok is under scrutiny from US authorities over fears that the Chinese government could demand user data from it or use the app to spread propaganda, which TikTok has repeatedly denied.
TikTok is an application for creating and viewing short videos, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It was released in 2018. According to TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi, there are more than 100 million users of the social network in the United States.