U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Monday a TikTok video by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., posted Friday night in which she opposed a proposed ban on the social media app, is "shameful" after Ocasio-Cortez argued Congress has not received a briefing on why the platform is a national security risk.
Cammack told "American Agenda" all Ocasio-Cortez needs to do is visit Congress' Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility and view classified reports from the FBI and CIA on why TikTok, owned by ByteDance, which has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is such a national security threat.
"There are multiple reports available to any member of Congress," Cammack said. "And, yet, she is posting from within her office on a social media platform that is directly an extension of the Chinese Communist Party. She is playing right into their hands, and it's really, really shameful.
"This is digital fentanyl, and it is a national security threat to our Americans and our security. It's crazy."
Cammack is part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which held a more than five-hour hearing Thursday grilling TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over the app's risks to U.S. national security.
Chew was in the hot seat during questions by Republicans and Democrats, a show of rare bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
"The thing that no one thought was possible is that Republicans and Democrats can come together," Cammack said. "It was a bipartisan tongue-lashing that the CEO endured for five hours, but it was deserved.
"We know for a fact that the CCP is targeting Americans, harvesting their data not for sale but for asymmetrical warfare, political warfare. They're in the information-gathering phase."
Cammack said TikTok uses a behavioral algorithm that tries to keep users on the platform longer so more data can be harvested. TikTok has more than 150 million users in the United States.
"This is hands down, not only as I said, digital fentanyl that encourages young people to do ridiculously stupid challenges — but, hey, that's your First Amendment right; you can do stupid things — but when you start compromising national security, that is when we have a problem, and that's why you're seeing this bipartisan push to really rein in the warrantless data collection that's taking place here," she said.
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