Former Deputy National Security Adviser: CCP-Linked Platforms Give CCP ‘Ability to Manipulate Our Social Discourse’

Former Deputy National Security Adviser of the United States Matthew Pottinger said during the first China Select Committee hearing that Chinese company-linked platforms, such as TikTok, “gives the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] the ability to manipulate our social discourse.”

Pottinger, who served as the deputy national security adviser under former President Donald Trump, explained that Chinese-linked platforms had received a lot of attention for being “a real problem for the privacy of Americans,” in addition to a “national security” problem for the country.

He added that “one small example of a universe of potential abuse” from TikTok came after the Chinese parent company, ByteDance, confirmed it was using the social media app to “surveil U.S. journalists in order to try to identify their sources to retaliate against their sources.”

Additionally, Trump’s former deputy national security adviser added that such platforms, such as WeChat and TikTok, “gives the Chinese Communist Party the ability to manipulate our social discourse” if used in the United States:

I simply don’t think that it’s possible to mitigate in a credible way against that threat, but the bigger coup for the Chinese Communist Party, if Tiktok is permitted to continue operating in the United States and if WeChat and other Chinese platforms are allowed to continue to operate, is that gives the Chinese Communist Party the ability to manipulate our social discourse, the news to censor and suppress or to amplify what tens of millions of Americans see and read and experience and hear through their social media app. TikTok is already one of the most powerful media companies in American history, and it’s still growing. It’s not just dances and kid stuff. It’s becoming a major source of news for a generation of Americans. [Emphasis added.]

He also acknowledged that “nothing in Chinese law suggests that the Chinese Communist Party would back off of its legislative privilege to access all of the data produced by social media platforms and other Chinese apps.”

Pottinger’s remarks at the hearing came just one day after the Biden White House issued a directive that gave all government agencies 30 days to eliminate the Chinese social media app TikTok, which is now banned by law from any U.S. government devices.

The Biden administration made the directive after the legislation passed last year, giving the administration 60 days to enact the law after there had been growing national security concerns over what data the Chinese social media app collects and who is able to access the data.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.