On Wednesday former Vice President Mike Pence published an op-ed in which he called for the banning of TikTok, calling it "digital fentanyl."
He championed the passage of legislation that would force its sale or have it banned in the United States for security and privacy risks. "It is essentially digital fentanyl, a 21st-century technological weapon," Pence wrote in a Fox News opinion column.
"The app is so potent and addictive that TikTok is banned within China."
On Wednesday, the House will take up a bill that, if passed, would force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media app or ban it from being downloaded from app stores for users located in the United States.
President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it passes despite his campaign being on the app.
TikTok says the bill would be a "defacto ban" and that it has spent over $1 billion to secure user data for U.S. customers from the Chinese government to assuage the fears of its critics.
The social media app has been sending push alerts urging users to call on representatives to "stop a TikTok ban."
The Senate previously voted unanimously to prohibit TikTok from being used on official government devices, which was signed into law in December 2022.
Former Vice President Pence called the app "Chinese spyware" and that not limiting the app in America was tantamount to allowing it to "spew CCP-sanctioned propaganda poisoning the minds of American children" and that doing nothing "is just wrong."
This comes after Trump announced his opposition to the TikTok ban, claiming it would only empower Facebook, which he said is "an enemy of the people" during an interview with CNBC on Monday.
Last month, the Biden campaign began posting content on the app in an attempt to woo young voters. This move was met with a great deal of criticism.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced members of Congress on two separate occasions. One last March he was questioned about the platform's security risk, and again in January when he was joined by four other tech CEOs for a hearing to highlight the continued risk of child sexual abuse material being circulated on their sites.
"Allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States while under CCP control is simply unacceptable," Pence wrote. "We would never have let Russia run the nightly news during the Cold War, and we certainly can't let China do the same now."
Currently, approximately 107.8 million Americans use the TikTok app.
