TikTok has hired former national press secretary for President Joe Biden’s campaign to manage “political communications” for the US and America.
Jamal Brown, who also served as the Defense Department’s No. 2 spokesman, has joined the video-sharing phenomenon amid a crackdown on the company over its alleged misuse of US consumer data, which poses a national security threat.
The hire is the latest in a line of top Hill employees being hired by TikTok parent company ByteDance for its influencer operations.
Republican Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley told , “This kind of cozy relationship between Biden’s Department of Defense and TikTok is alarming.
“TikTok and its Chinese parent company pose a serious national security threat, but Joe Biden remains hesitant as they gobble up Americans’ personal information.
“Get Serious: Get ByteDance to sell TikTok.”
It also comes as FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr urged the Biden administration to ban the app in an interview Tuesday amid concerns millions of consumer data is being stored on insecure servers in China.
Brown is a well-connected contributor to TikTok, which is currently waging an intense PR battle for its US presence.
Jamal Brown, who served as press secretary for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, was hired by TikTok to work on their communications team
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said the termination of TikTok is a sign of the “cozy” relationship between the Biden administration and TikTok
Brown is well connected and will likely be busy with the challenges of running TikTok in the US
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is gearing up for a battle with US regulators
Zhang Yiming, Founder and Global CEO of ByteDance, attends the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on December 17, 2015. The app was launched in 2016
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin also criticized the Chinese-owned company’s hiring moves.
“This is a shocking example of the CCP using the swamp against us,” he told .
“Given the threat TikTok poses to user privacy and the potential that its algorithm can be manipulated at any time by the CCP to sway American public opinion, we must ban the app before it’s too late.”
Brown was Biden’s national press secretary for his 2020 campaign, having served in the Obama White House for more than six years.
During the October 2020 presidential debates, Brown tweeted highlighting his bosses’ claims about Donald Trump’s ties to China, which were used to combat the scandal surrounding First Son Hunter Biden’s deals with Beijing-backed Chinese companies.
‘@JoeBiden: ‘Russia pays you a lot. China pays you a lot. Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption.’ #Debates2020,’ he tweeted.
Brown also appeared in TV interviews ahead of the election and tried to dismiss the laptop as “misinformation” – after which proved it was real.
Biden Campaign National Press Secretary @JTOBrown responds to Twitter’s decision to block a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
“Twitter’s response to the actual article itself makes it clear that these purported claims are false.” #CheddarLive pic.twitter.com/PdPEkMZ85p
— Cheddar News (@cheddar) October 15, 2020
“I think Twitter’s response to the actual article itself makes it clear that these alleged allegations are false and untrue. I’m glad to see social media companies like Twitter taking responsibility to curb misinformation,” he told financial cable news channel Cheddar.
Brown’s first government role was in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where his policy brief covered cybersecurity.
He was sworn in at the Department of Defense in February 2021 as Deputy Press Secretary and works in the Assistant Secretary of Defense’s Office of Public Affairs.
TikTok doesn’t appear to have released a statement announcing Brown to be joining his spin team. His hiring was first mentioned in a line in a Politico newsletter on Tuesday.
The bullet point, listed alongside other DC job postings, described Brown’s role of “managing political communications for America, focusing primarily on the United States.”
TikTok is believed to ramp up its lobbying and PR operations ahead of expected battles over its presence in the United States
Press releases on the DoD website with statements attributed to Brown include COVID vaccination announcements for the military.
He was quoted on DefenseNews.com as making a statement about increasing diversity at the Pentagon and on a CBS channel in Milwaukee about Biden’s order to end Defense Department help building the southern border wall.
News of his hiring comes on the heels of warnings from US regulators that the Chinese government is getting its hands on data on the 200 million Americans who use the app.
Carr, a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, told news site Axios on Tuesday, “I don’t think there’s a way forward for anything other than a ban.”
He said there is “no world where you can find enough protection for data that you can have enough confidence that it won’t get back into data hands [Chinese Communist Party].’
In June, Carr wrote to the CEOs of Apple and Google to urge them to ban the app from their platforms.
“At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that collects large amounts of personal and sensitive data,” the commissioner’s letter to the technical directors said.
“In fact, TikTok collects everything from search and browsing histories to keystroke patterns and biometric identifiers, including faceprints… and voiceprints.”
TikTok is currently in talks with CFIUS, a multi-governmental body that regulates foreign companies in the US, to see if ByteDance can sell it to an American company.
The New York Times reported last month that Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who is leading the negotiations over TikTok’s US status, “has concerns that the terms are not harsh enough for China,” according to two sources.
The company released a statement saying, “We are confident that we are on track to reach an agreement with the US government that will resolve all reasonable national security concerns.”
Stacy Ettinger, a partner in a DC law firm, has been hired by TikTok to represent her. She was previously an assistant to Chuck Schumer
TikTok appears to be on a hiring spree to bring top spin doctors to its ranks.
Another job posting on his website offers a position of Senior Policy Communications Manager, Americas with at least 10 years of public affairs experience.
The role includes responsibility for “developing strategies for engaging and educating policymakers on issues important to TikTok and our community,” as well as the ability to “manage reactive communications for policy and regulatory issues.” .
According to lobbying disclosures, ByteDance also hired former assistant to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this year to lobby for them.
Stacy Ettinger, a partner at lobby group K&L Gates, was part of a team that paid $40,000 to represent ByteDance in Washington DC.
She was previously a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at Schumer before joining the law firm.