Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is encouraging the public to follow his new TikTok account just months after sounding the alarm over the social media app’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Brown has posted five clips on TikTok since Saturday, including one that he shared on X (the social media website formerly called Twitter) in which he said: “I look forward to getting to know all of you. My career has been and will continue to be devoted to standing up to special interest groups. … I’ll continue to put Ohio first, continue to fight for the dignity of work.” The senator’s move to tout his TikTok account appears to be a far cry from his comments about the app in March.
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“We must protect Ohioans’ personal information from the Chinese Communist Party,” Brown told Ohio’s WTOL 11 earlier this year. “I have serious concerns with this company’s ties to the Chinese government and will continue to work with members of both parties to look at how we can best protect Ohioans’ privacy and our national security.”
Brown’s openness to using TikTok comes as Congress and some individual states look to enact widespread bans on the app, with a federal judge in Texas in mid-December upholding the Lone Star State’s law preventing state employees from using TikTok on government devices. TikTok’s owner is ByteDance, a Chinese technology company that has been the focus of a Justice Department investigation into whether ByteDance spied on American citizens, including journalists. TikTok admitted in December 2022 that ByteDance improperly accessed reporters’ data to track their physical movements.
The Democrat’s TikTok embrace is likely to lead to accusations of hypocrisy from Republicans against Brown, who, for instance, has called for financial transparency despite failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets. Republicans have also hammered Brown for supporting tax increases while not paying his own tax bill on his Cleveland home at least seven times since 2013, NBC News reported.
“This is just another example of career politician Sherrod Brown saying one thing and doing another,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Philip Letsou told the Washington Examiner. “After nearly 50 years in politics, it’s clear Sherrod Brown has gotten comfortable casually lying to voters.”
Follow along with me on TikTok: https://t.co/HAZ9GkwOip pic.twitter.com/ocsGzJhdOJ
— Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) December 16, 2023
In mid-December 2022, Brown joined senators in unanimously voting in favor of a bill introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), which President Joe Biden signed into law later that month, banning TikTok from being downloaded or used on federal government devices. Brown has said in the past that federal funds should not boost “Chinese state-controlled enterprises that want to undermine U.S. manufacturers and overtake our supply chain that supports rail and bus manufacturing.”
Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) also have TikTok accounts, as do Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), according to a Washington Examiner review. Booker asserted in February that addressing TikTok’s China ties is “something we have to take seriously,” and Markey in March said that TikTok “stands alone as the one platform that poses a serious surveillance threat to our nation’s youth,” adding, “TikTok needs to be regulated immediately.”
Brown is running for a fourth term in 2024, though it’s unclear yet which Republican he will face. The GOP primary is in March, and the current candidates include Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno.
The Ohio senate seat is a “toss up,” according to the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections tracker.
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The Brown campaign did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
“Sherrod has a strong record holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable and will continue working with both parties to protect Ohioans’ privacy and our national security,” Rachel Petri, Brown’s campaign manager, told Fox News.
