Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., took to TikTok, the Chinese Communist Party-tied app that’s been banned by President Biden, to post a video complaining about being kicked out of the Intelligence Committee by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy ejected Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell from the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, citing national security concerns. Schiff responded by asking for donations in his first video ever on Tiktok, a Chinese-owned video sharing app that is slammed by both Republicans and Democrats – over national security concerns.
“Hello, I’m Congressman Adam Schiff with some troubling news,” Schiff said in the video. “Today, Kevin McCarthy removed me from the House Intelligence Committee, all for doing my job holding Trump accountable and standing up to the extreme MAGA Republicans.”
“We knew it would be bad when the Republicans took over, but it’s far worse than we expected,” he said. “But I can promise you this, this is not the end of my fight for our democracy, this is just the beginning. Please join us and contribute today.”
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TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. Its critics say the Chinese government could access user data, such as browsing history and location, as well as push communist propaganda through the app.
Fears surrounding the popular social media site grew following a report last year that a TikTok team in China accessed data of U.S. TikTok users, including two journalists.
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A growing number of red and blue states across the country are at least partially banning TikTok, and Congress prohibited TikTok’s use on federal government devices in the omnibus bill that Biden signed into law weeks ago.
The U.S. armed forces have also banned TikTok on military devices.
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While the effort to restrict TikTok has been a bipartisan one, Democrats are still largely using the app on their personal devices. A recent analysis by States Newsroom found that at least 32 members of Congress — all Democrats and one independent — as of early January had TikTok accounts, and at least half of those members either “currently sit or have previously served on committees dealing with foreign affairs, the U.S. military, investigations and national security.”
In order to avoid the sweeping U.S. bans, TikTok has reportedly offered to increase its transparency by granting U.S. officials oversight of its algorithms as part of a $1.5 billion reorganization of its U.S. operations.
In his second TikTok video on Thursday, Schiff announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Fox News’ Breck Dumas contributed to this report.
