Adam Schiff Mourns Ouster From Intelligence Committee By Fundraising on National Security Threat TikTok

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) mourned his ouster from the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday by posting on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform about which FBI Director Christopher Wray has said he harbors “national security concerns.”

Last month, Congress seemed to concur with Wray’s assessment when it included a ban on using TikTok on government devices in a massive omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Joe Biden. Before being pushed through as part of the spending bill, the ban passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

In a short video, Schiff broke the “troubling news” that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had decided not to seat him on the Intelligence Committee as a result of Schiff’s political actions during the Trump-Russia investigation. The congressman then promised this does not mark the end of his “fight for our democracy.” He finished by asking the audience to “join us and contribute today.”

On Thursday, Schiff announced what the contributions would go toward: A campaign to make the jump to the Senate.

McCarthy has charged Schiff with abusing his position as chairman of the committee during the Trump administration, specifically by purporting to have information demonstrating that the former president had colluded with the Russian government to secure the White House.

But regardless of one’s evaluation of McCarthy’s allegation, Schiff’s decision to use TikTok as a fundraising platform for his political endeavors raises serious questions about Schiff’s knowledge of and concern for national security matters.

As Director Wray has noted, the Chinese government has the ability to “control data collection on millions of [TikTok] users” as well as “control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations” or even “control software on millions of devices, which gives it an opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.”

That means that TikTok could theoretically provide the Chinese Communist Party with the kind of incriminating kompromat on American officials that Schiff said he believed the Russians had on Trump.

Even if Schiff’s use of the platform presents no immediate national security threat, though, it sends exactly the wrong message to the American public. If an ex-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee freely uses the app, why shouldn’t other officials, journalists, and citizens?

As a number of Forbes reporters learned last month, because TikTok might make use of its capabilities to track your location.

According to materials reviewed by Forbes, ByteDance [TikTok’s parent company] tracked multiple Forbes journalists as part of this covert surveillance campaign, which was designed to unearth the source of leaks inside the company following a drumbeat of stories exposing the company’s ongoing links to China.

Instead of taking Schiff’s carelessness as a blessing of TikTok, Americans should heed it as a warning that some of its leaders are more interested in the appearance of fighting for our democracy than doing the bare minimum to safeguard it.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.