Joe Biden Campaign Warns Staffers to ‘Refrain From Downloading’ China’s TikTok

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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign has banned staffers from downloading the Chinese video application TikTok.

Biden counsel Dana Remus advised employees in a Monday memo to “refrain from downloading and using TikTok on work and personal devices” due to security and privacy concerns. The message was first obtained by Bloomberg.

TikTok has long been a concern to politicians, and in October, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) warned parents about the app.

“Dear Parents: Do your family a favor & check to see if your kids are on TikTok. Answer is almost certainly yes,” he declared. “TikTok is a Chinese owned company that is collecting all sorts of personal data on your kids & by extension your family. If you don’t want to donate personal data to China then #DeleteTikTok today.”

The same month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) coauthored a letter calling for an investigation into the app.

More recently, the Trump administration has hinted at taking action against TikTok, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warning Americans to only download the app “if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is located in Beijing, while ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is one of China’s richest men.