A Republican senator shared an alarming voicemail threatening to gun him down over proposed TikTok legislation.
On Wednesday, Senator Thom Tillis (NC) shared on X, formerly Twitter, that the menacing voicemail had come into his office the night before, and blamed the social media app for getting the call in the first place.
This is a voicemail my office received last night. TikTok's misinformation campaign is pushing people to call their members of Congress, and callers like this who communicate threats against elected officials could be committing a federal crime. The Communist-Chinese aligned… pic.twitter.com/X9uW03neqw
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) March 20, 2024
“TikTok’s misinformation campaign is pushing people to call their members of Congress, and callers like this who communicate threats against elected officials could be committing a federal crime,” he captioned an audio clip of the voicemail.
In the clip, the sounds of what appear to be a large group of children could be heard in the background, before the voice of a person who is likely a minor, fired off a senseless threat.
“Listen if you ban TikTok, I will find you and shoot you,” the person said with a laugh. “That’s people’s jobs and that’s my only entertainment. And people make money off there too.”
“Anyways, I’ll find you and shoot you and cut you into pieces. Bye,” the voicemail concluded.
Last week, the House approved legislation that would force Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell of ownership or face being removed from app stores in the United States.
In response, TikTok pushed a notification to its users, that urged them to contact their local Congressperson to prevent a shut down of the app.
Tillis blasted the “Communist-Chinese aligned company” for “proving” how “dangerous” the platform is under their ownership. “Great work, TikTok,” he added.
On the same day, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was pushing to declassify the information shared in the “very powerful” Wednesday briefing.
“I think there was a reason why when this brief was given on the House side, to the Energy and Commerce Committee, afterwards they voted 50 to nothing to move the legislation forward,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tex Cruz (R-Texas) explained that Congress was not trying to shut down the app, just remove it from the control the Chinese Communist Party.
Cruz said that under its current ownership, Tiktok poses the “threat” of “espionage and surveillance” to the app’s 170 million users.
“They have the ability to monitor what they’re saying, what they’re doing on their phones, where they are. I think it’s a real privacy risk to Americans, who may not realize that the Chinese government has that ability,” Cruz detailed.
He also cited concerns about the company pushing Chinese propaganda to suppress information about “Tiananmen Square, about Hong Kong, about Tibet.”
Cruz also noted the negative influence TikTok has had on the American youth.
They’re pushing all sorts of harmful garbage to our kids. Self-harm, cutting,” he pointed out. “Here, they’re pushing our kids to chew tide pods.”
China, China, China!
Like Russia, Russia, Russia…A HOAX!
It’s a Trojan Horse that will give unprecedented censorship powers to Guvmint! This will establish the means for the Left to shut down ANY SocMed site it doesn’t like! Read the bill!
If we’re so afraid of China, maybe our illegitimate Guvmint should get out of bed with them then! We should stop selling American land to them! Disallow their investment in American Companies. Why is there no Chinese outrage OTHER THAN TikTok?
Pelosi and the Radical Left are salivating, hoping they can fool you into putting them in charge of what you’re ALLOWED to know.
This is a despicable TRAP, like the January 6th production.
Americans should choose where they get information…NOT Guvmint!