House Democrats are facing a flurry of ethics complaints regarding their use of TikTok, even though the social media app has been banned for use on federal government devices by Congress and the Biden administration.
The nonpartisan Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has filed complaints since March 30 to the Office of Congressional Ethics against four Democratic representatives: Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jeff Jackson and Wiley Nickel of North Carolina and Jamaal Bowman of New York. The group claims each used TikTok for official House and political purposes, which it said is a violation of House ethics rules.
The Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent nonpartisan group established by the House that reviews allegations of misconduct against representatives and staff, according to its website. If appropriate, it will refer matters to the House Committee on Ethics.
"First, the violations themselves are significant because these members are using official government accounts and buildings for campaign purposes," Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, told the Washington Examiner. "This is prohibited because these resources are paid for and provided by taxpayers, and they simply cannot be used to help a member's campaign."
She added the House rules "protect the integrity of the government," and the repeated alleged violations speak "to a potentially broader trend of ignoring fundamental and easy-to-understand ethics rules."
Congress is considering a national ban of TikTok, whose owner, ByteDance, has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. There are concerns data gleaned from TikTok, such as biometric data and browser history of its more than 150 million American users, could be shared with the Chinese government.
Bowman and Omar have been outspoken supporters of TikTok and oppose any attempt to ban the app in the U.S. When TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was testifying in front of a House committee on March 22, Bowman held a rally outside of the Capitol building with more than 20 content creators with a combined 60 million followers on TikTok.
In its complaint against Bowman, FACT claims he has two separate TikTok accounts, where he has posted political content on his official account and used official resources to make posts on his political account.
"Although Rep. Bowman has two distinct TikTok accounts, he has posted political content on his official account and content using official resources on his political account," the group wrote in its complaint. "Both are violations of the ethics rules."
FACT claims in its complaints against Omar, Nickel, and Jackson that each violated ethics rules because their TikTok accounts contained campaign and official government content. It said federal law and House ethics rules require strict separation between campaign and official acts: a member is prohibited from using official resources for campaign purposes and a member is prohibited from using campaign funds for official purposes.
Newsmax reached out to Omar, Nickel, Jackson, and Bowman for comment.
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