Omar Accused of Violating House Rules Over Use of TikTok Account

The non-partisan ethics watchdog group, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in regards to her use of social media, specifically a personal and official TikTok account.

The complaint, filed on March 30, 2023, calls for an investigation into whether Omar has violated House rules by using official resources on a social media account for political purposes.

FACT has noted that despite warnings about TikTok sharing data with the Chinese regime and the House’s ban of the app on official devices, Omar continued to use the same account for official and political aims. This appears to be a breach of House Ethics rules.

Omar’s TikTok account shows political content, including videos encouraging viewers to support Democratic candidates, messages to interested Democrats, and videos of Omar attending campaign events. Her account also features official government resources, such as C-Span footage, cell phone videos recorded on the House floor, and an interview from her House office.

FACT stated that federal law and House ethics rules necessitate a clear separation between campaign and official actions. They state, “The ethics rules enforce this law by also prohibiting Members from using any official resource for campaign or political purposes.”

An official resource is anything financed through taxpayers, which includes all government-provided items.