Chinese-owned TikTok hires communications pro who worked for Biden, Pentagon

A former top communications official for the Biden a🐷dministration and the Pentagon has taken a job at Chinese-owned TikTok, according to a report.

The social media app has plucked Jamal Brown from the US Dep﷽artment of Defense to “manage policy communications” for TikTok’s US sector, according to .

Brown has worked as the deputy ꧟press secretary for the Pentagon since February 2021, where he moved after serving as a national press secretary for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.

The hire raised eyebrows across the aisle since Politico rep𝔍orted the news last week, with TikTok having been touted as a national security threat even since the platform exploded in popularity♉ in the US in 2020.

“This sort of cozy relationship between the Biden 🅷Defense Department and TikTok is alarming,” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley told

Brown also worked in the White House under the Obama administratioꦛn for six years as part of the US Office of Management and Bud✅get.

“TikTok and their Chinese parent company ꦑpresent a se𝄹rious national security threat, but Joe Biden continues to dither as they gobble up Americans’ personal information,” Hawley said.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is subject to Chinese Co𝕴mmunist Party law that requires the company to share user data from the app upon request.

Over 86 million Americans have a TikTok acc♎ount, which is more than 25% of the US population.

Last week, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called for a ban on TikTok in the US entirely, calling it the only way to mi꧑tigate the threat the app poses to the nation’s cyber security.

“I don’t believe there is ꦐa path forward for anything other than a ban,” Carr said.

He added there is not “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chine๊se Communist Party].”

TikTok has not formally announced Brown’s hi🔴re, but on Monday he had changed his Twitter bio to reflect his new employm🐓ent.