Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) did not give President Joe Biden a pass on his hypocritical TikTok stance in her Thursday rebuttal to the contentious State of the Union address.
Britt’s message was blunt and clear: Biden can’t have his cake and eat it too.
“The CCP knows that if it conquers the minds of our next generation, it conquers America,” she said, addressing Americans from her Alabama home. “And what does President Biden do? He bans TikTok for government employees, but creates an account for his own campaign.”
Earlier in her rebuttal, Britt also implied that China is taking deliberate steps to subvert the United States. “China is buying up our farmland, spying on our military installations and spreading propaganda through the likes of TikTok,” she emphasized.
A startled Britt concluded: “You can’t make this stuff up!”
Biden’s flip-flopping on TikTok dates back to December 2022, when he signed a spending bill that included the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” effectively banning federal officials from using TikTok on government-issued devices.
But less than two years later, Biden's re-election campaign joined the app during the 2024 Super Bowl. The move marked a desperate attempt to reach young voters ahead of the general election but also downplayed the president's previous disapproval of TikTok.
Related: Hypocrisy! Basement Biden to Rein in Chinese Data Buying But Is Still on TikTok
Such an about-face move drew the ire of critics, including MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider. “Joe Biden is openly defying the order he imposed on other federal employees by using TikTok to attack his political opponents,” Schneider said, echoing Britt’s sentiments.
Drawing attention to an imminent Supreme Court case on censorship, Scheider added: “At the same time, he is trying to defy court orders that would prevent him from coercing and colluding with TikTok to silence conservatives. These violations of our free speech rights must stop.”
Following criticism, the White House unsuccessfully attempted to clarify that the Biden campaign's use of TikTok did not reverse the 2022 limited ban.
The Biden campaign retorted that it would take so-called “advanced safety” measures while using TikTok – whatever that means.
“We are taking advanced safety precautions around our devices and incorporating a sophisticated security protocol to ensure security,” the campaign claimed last month, clarifying it is not part of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.’s investigation into TikTok.
Notably, the White House supports the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bill grants Biden the power to ban TikTok unless it cuts ties with parent company ByteDance.
ByteDance is a Chinese tech company that has emerged as having close ties to the Communist Chinese government.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
