A cybersecurity lawyer for TikTok blasted proposals to ban the Chinese Communist Party–linked app as driven “solely” by anti-China racism, in a Twitter post that has since been deleted. That attorney, Dondi West, formerly worked for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other government agencies, a fact that might raise new questions about TikTok’s hiring from the U.S. intelligence community, given the company’s ties to the Chinese government.
On Tuesday, West replied to a tweet by Chuck Flint, a former chief of staff to Senator Marsha Blackburn, promoting an op-ed that called for banning TikTok. Flint’s tweet had called the app “an arm of Communist China.” West accused proponents of a ban of advocating hateful policies. “Laws and policies driven solely by anti-China xenophobia, with no evidence proving an actual threat, is also a threat to national security, and also contribute to anti-Asian hate,” he tweeted.
West’s tweet also linked to a September 2021 column in The Scientist magazine that sharply criticized the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) for its “anti-China undertones.” Mandatory disclosures show that the government relations team representing TikTok lobbied Congressional offices on that bill. Although an initial version of the legislation included a provision barring the use of TikTok on government devices, that measure was removed at some point before Congress passed the package this year.
After Flint replied to West’s tweet, asking if he speaks for TikTok, West deleted it.
West’s Twitter profile identifies him as a cybersecurity attorney for TikTok and lists several of his other former employers, including the National Security Agency, U.S. Cybercommand, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Questioned over Twitter by National Review about whether he stands by the since-deleted comments, West did not reply, and at some point after receiving NR’s message he set his account to private.
Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, said that West does not speak on behalf of the company and referred NR to his profile on LinkedIn to assess “his qualifications to opine on these issues.” (While his Twitter account does state “Tweets are mine,” it also clearly indicates that he works for TikTok.)
West’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he worked as a contractor in various roles with federal government agencies until 2016, when he entered the private sector. During his tenure at U.S. Cyber Command, he took part in efforts to counter Russian cyber threats. While working for ODNI, he was a senior cyber-staff officer, a role in which he says he worked with the White House. His LinkedIn profile does not provide information on whether he currently holds a security clearance.
As TikTok has faced criticism for its ties to the Chinese government in recent years, the company’s defenders have attempted to portray its detractors as racist and xenophobic. However, TikTok and ByteDance, its parent company, have extensively documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
ByteDance has an internal CCP committee, where employees discuss “Xi Jinping Thought” and other facets of the party doctrine. In addition, hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok employees formerly worked for the party’s propaganda organs, as Forbes reported this week. A BuzzFeed News article recently revealed that Beijing-based employees of ByteDance regularly accessed U.S. TikTok users’ data, prompting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to investigate the app.
Update: This article has been updated to add that West’s tweet cited as support a column that attacked the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act for its “anti-China undertones.”