FCC Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr has welcomed the recent ban of social media app TikTok from all federal government devices, saying the platform has been purposely misleading U.S. officials and the public on the how harmful the app can be.
Carr said the ban is an “important, bipartisan win” against the TikTok “dangers”.
“In my view, cutting a deal with TikTok would be a serious mistake,” Carr said. “We cannot take that kind of risk when it comes to America’s national security…while TikTok has been in the middle of negotiations with Administration officials—when it has had the strongest possible incentives to operate in a trustworthy manner—here is just a sample of the activities it has engaged in. TikTok’s parent company and its personnel inside China used the app to surveil the locations of journalists that worked on stories highlighting TikTok’s national security risks.”
Carr’s comments come less than a month after he urged all Americans to stop utilizing the short-form video app. He continued his recent comments by saying the Chinese Communist Party is actively working against the U.S. government and has weaponized the app for that purpose.
“TikTok accounts run by the CCP’s propaganda arm targeted and ran misinformation campaigns about specific U.S. politicians ahead of our recent midterm elections—all while TikTok shielded those accounts’ links to the Chinese Communist Party.”
