GOP officials concerned about US Guardsman in TikTok ad.

Two Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns over a video advertisement released by TikTok featuring an Air National Guardsman. They say it appears to be a “de facto” endorsement of the Chinese-owned video app amid heightened security concerns.

Chinese Surveillance and Manipulation

“Chinese intelligence and security services use TikTok to surveil, exploit, and manipulate the American people,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote in a letter addressed to Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

The lawmakers expressed concern over the participation of Jon Lynch, an Air National Guard member based in New Hampshire, in the TikTok ad released last month.

De Facto Endorsement

“The video appears to serve as a de facto National Guard endorsement of TikTok’s platform,” Stefanik and Hawley said in the letter dated April 28, which was first reported by Politico. “This is extremely concerning given the known threats TikTok poses to Americans—especially so as TikTok is now banned on all U.S. government devices.”

ByteDance Ties

TikTok was founded and owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based tech giant. The ties have raised bipartisan concerns in Congress, especially after leaked recordings revealed that ByteDance engineers in China had repeatedly accessed the platform’s U.S. data as of January 2022.

The two lawmakers noted the short-video platform was beholden to China’s intelligence law, which compels “any organization or citizen” to “support, assist, and cooperate” with security and intelligence agencies when asked by Beijing.

Response from National Guard

In response, Lt. Col. Greg Heilshorn, director of public affairs at the New Hampshire National Guard, stated Lynch has been running his TikTok channel “on his own time with his own equipment.”

“He has worked with our public affairs office to ensure he is in accordance with military policy,” Heilshorn said in a statement to The Epoch Times.