A top Senate Democrat said Monday that he is "worried about a mixed message" from President Joe Biden's reelection campaign's embrace of TikTok.
"I think at the end of the day, the Chinese Communist Party can not only get access to the data, but also, more importantly, can potentially drive the algorithms in terms of what you’re seeing," Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said, according to The Hill. "I’m a little worried about a mixed message."
Warner serves as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and he is one of many in Congress who have raised concerns that the China-owned social media platform could gain data from American users. He, along with Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), introduced in March 2023 the RESTRICT Act, a Biden-backed bill that would allow the administration the authority to restrict or ban companies run by adversaries, such as TikTok—though China hawks in Congress denounced the bill as a "half-measure."
The Biden campaign on Sunday posted its first TikTok, a Super Bowl-themed video of the president answering questions about the big game. Though staff noted that aides, not Biden, will run the account, the post came over a year after the president signed into law a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) that banned TikTok on all federal government devices.
Reports first emerged in November that the campaign was considering the move, but senior communications adviser T.J. Ducklo brushed off the scoop as something the team had merely talked about.