Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) ripped former U.S. officials during an interview over the weekend for lobbying on behalf of ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled company that owns TikTok.
Gallagher made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan while talking about the push that the company has made to dissuade U.S. lawmakers from passing a bill that force ByteDance to sell the company.
“There is an unprecedented lobbying campaign, they’re really weaponizing the swamp against legislative action,” Gallagher said. “Over half a million dollars spent last quarter alone on seven different lobbying firms. It’s disgusting. Former members of Congress lobbying on behalf of TikTok. By the way, that should be illegal. Members of Congress should not be allowed to lobby in general, let alone on behalf of foreign adversaries. Side note.”
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Gallagher said that the user experience will improve on TikTok if ByteDance is forced to sell the company because the divisive and controversial algorithm that TikTok uses will not be used by its new owners.
“The opaque algorithm influencing what information you see, that would go away. So, I imagine it would actually increase in value,” he said. “And I think all the more reason why we have to tackle this now, the closer we get to an election, the risk just gets greater and greater. You mentioned that unclassified DNI report. Every single intelligence community official that testified before the intelligence committee last week suggested under its current ownership structure TikTok is a threat to national security, which is why we are trying to force TikTok to separate from ByteDance and by extension from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Related: Director Of National Intelligence Includes China’s TikTok Among Its Top Threats To National Security