Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) shared a voicemail message on Wednesday that he received from an upset TikTok user who threatened to find the senator and shoot him if TikTok is banned in the United States.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Tillis shared the recording and called TikTok “dangerous,” appearing to blame the company for the message as they’ve been advocating against legislation that would force the China-based ByteDance to divest from TikTok. Critics have cited concerns about access to user information and manipulated algorithms as reasons for concern over Chinese ownership in the social media app.
“This is a voicemail my office received last night,” Tillis said. “TikTok’s misinformation campaign is pushing people to call their members of Congress, and callers like this who communicate threats against elected officials could be committing a federal crime. The Communist-Chinese-aligned company is proving just how dangerous their current ownership is. Great work, TikTok.”
In the message, what sounds like a young girl threatens to find Tillis, shoot him, and cut him into little pieces. The TikTok user says she’s trying to “get rich” off of the app and she laughs while threatening the senator.
“If you ban TikTok, I will find you and shoot you. That’s people’s job and that’s my only entertainment. And people make money off there too, you know. I’m trying
Tillis spoke to Fox News on Wednesday about messages his office has been receiving while TikTok has been debated by lawmakers. He said the message “hurts” TikTok’s case.
“We have let a lot of kids off the hook but I had a kid just recently say I’m going to hunt you down and shoot you and cut you into little pieces. She sounds like she was about 16 years old or younger,” he said. “To have TikTok tell these kids to do that doesn’t it actually help their case, it hurts their case.”
As Fox News congressional correspondent Aishah Hasnie noted in her report, TikTok has not been encouraging users to threaten violence, but rather lobbying against legislation aimed at the app.
Watch above via Fox News.