The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the Global Times, touted President Biden and his campaign’s use of TikTok, and critiqued the “deep hypocrisy” of America’s politicians who call the social media platform a national security threat.
The opinion article in the CCP’s state media said that Biden’s campaign use of TikTok “highlights the unjust suppression” and “proves the hype nonsense.”
“As a social media app that has been heavily portrayed by the US as a ‘national security threat,’ TikTok being used by Biden’s campaign highlights the unjust suppression of TikTok by American politicians and proves the hype nonsense,” the article said.
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President Biden’s re-election campaign was widely criticized on Sunday for joining the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok. (Fox News)
The Global Times argued that the short-form video social media platform has become a “necessary means” for American politicians to reach young voters.
Citing a 2023 survey report by the Pew Research Center, the Global Times said that about one-third (32 percent) of young Americans aged 18 to 29 say they regularly get their news from TikTok.
The app for TikTok on a phone screen. (Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)
The CCP newspaper said that American politicians are “very self-contradictory when it comes to TikTok.”
The article argued that the Biden campaign’s use of TikTok proves that the social media platform is not a national security threat and proves the “deep hypocrisy” of American politicians.
“In the end, we are witnessing that Washington’s behavior toward TikTok is unacceptable to the public and society, so politicians have to choose to compromise for votes,” Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
A Chinese newspaper says President Biden’s re-election campaign’s use of TikTok proves that the social media platform is not a national security threat to the U.S. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jake Denton, a research associate at the Heritage Foundation’s Tech Policy Center, told Fox News Digital that Biden’s “hunger for votes has blinded him to the national security threats” posed by TikTok.
President Biden’s insatiable hunger for votes has blinded him to the national security threats facing America.
“Once again, President Biden’s insatiable hunger for votes has blinded him to the national security threats facing America,” Denton said. “By choosing to use TikTok for his reelection campaign, he is callously disregarding warnings from both parties and national security experts that this Chinese-controlled technology imperils our national security through invasive data gathering and its ties to the CCP.”
“We cannot let one man’s thirst for social media virality and votes endanger our country,” Denton said. “The President must put America before his personal electoral interests, immediately delete TikTok, and join the bipartisan efforts to ban the app from operating on American soil.”
The Biden campaign’s TikTok video sparked outrage after the administration banned the Chinese-owned app from federal devices over security concerns.
Last February, the administration set a 30-day deadline for government agencies to purge the app from federal devices.
The social media platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is popular among younger Americans.
President Biden (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Biden previously joined forces with TikTok influencers amid his re-election run, and the Democratic National Committee also joined the platform.
The president’s campaign joining the Beijing-based social media platform could present unique security risks.
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Most notably, the Chinese Communist Party’s cybersecurity law allows government authorities to access companies’ data.
TikTok and the White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.