President Trump’s reelection campaign has started running anti-TikTok ads on Facebook and Instagram, warning that China is using the app to spy its American users.
The ad coincides with the Trump administration mulling a ban on the social media platform for sharing videos.
It accuses TikTok of snooping on users’ clipboards, which holds information that users copy and paste.
TikTok is owned by the China-based ByteDance.
“TikTok has been caught red-handed by monitoring what is on your phone’s clipboard,” reads a Trump campaign ad that ran Friday, according to the Facebook Ad Library. “Sign the petition now to BAN TikTok.”
TikTok responded by criticizing Facebook.
It pointed The Washington Times to previous statements it has made that are critical of Facebook “taking money for a political ad that attack[s] a competitor.”
Facebook has created a service called “Reels” that is intended to compete with TikTok and has sought to enter markets where TikTok has been blocked by foreign governments, including in India.
TikTok has said it knew iPhone users who tested a new operating system saw notifications showing TikTok was copying their clipboards, and TikTok said it was working to fix the problem.
The company said its app’s function was the result of a “feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior.” Several other applications are suspected of similar problems, including LinkedIn and Reddit.
The Trump campaign’s ad message has shifted recently from pushing supporters to support a ban to asking them if they would like to see a ban enacted. Several ads supporting a ban that started running Friday were inactive on Monday, while ads questioning whether a ban should be enacted began running this weekend and remain active on Facebook platforms.
The campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has not acted to ban TikTok from the U.S. but has limited its use by government officials. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, for example, said earlier this year that they were prohibiting the use of TikTok on government devices.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mr. Trump both said this month that the administration is considering banning TikTok in the U.S. On Monday, the White House declined to comment on the status of any potential ban and the State Department signaled it is still viewing TikTok skeptically.
In response to inquiries by The Times, the State Department confirmed the administration’s contention that every investment from a Chinese state-owned enterprise should be viewed with suspicion.
TikTok has ramped up a lobbying effort to win over government officials and has met with nearly 50 congressional offices since April.
TikTok is not the only social media platform that the Trump campaign has targeted. In June, the Trump campaign ran ads saying that Twitter and Snapchat were “interfering in the 2020 Election by attempting to SILENCE your President.”
Twitter and Snapchat have taken aggressive actions against Mr. Trump’s content on their sites, and Twitter and TikTok have blocked political advertising on their platforms. Facebook, which permits political advertising with fewer restrictions, has largely avoided the Trump campaign’s ire.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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