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Ossoff Campaigns on TikTok Ahead of Runoff

Georgia Dem takes to social media app tied to Chinese Communist Party

Jon Ossoff (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
December 2, 2020

Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff took to TikTok on Tuesday to broadcast a campaign video on the Chinese social media platform.

"You have to stop acting like the Senate isn't at stake in these two Georgia runoffs," Ossoff said in the video. "The future of our country and planet are at stake."

The bio on Ossoff's verified TikTok account @jon reads, "Proud Georgian. Candidate for United States Senate." Ossoff faces incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R.) in one of the two Jan. 5 Georgia Senate runoff elections.

TikTok is an app run by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which the Trump administration describes as a national security threat. Administration officials have voiced concern that under the Chinese Communist Party's policy of strict state oversight of the private sector, Beijing could access TikTok's data and the personal information of American users.

"TikTok basically allows the Chinese Communist Party to spy on our children," Keith Krach, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and environment, told the Washington Free Beacon in September.

The Trump administration has made efforts to ban the application or force it to be sold to an American company, and the Senate unanimously voted to ban the app from all devices issued by the federal government. 

The Ossoff campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the security concerns associated with the app.

Ossoff has faced scrutiny in the past for his ties to the Chinese Communist Party. A September report from National Review revealed that during his time managing an investigative documentary company, Ossoff received at least $5,000 from a Hong Kong company run by an ally of the CCP. The chairman of the Chinese firm has spoken out against the independence movement in Hong Kong.