#Trump campaign says ‘TikTok is spying on you’ in new Facebook ads

President Trump’s re-election campaign is turning up the heat on TikTok.

The campaign this week ran ads on Facebook claiming that the wildly popular, Chinese-owned social-media app is spying on its users, linking to a survey asking respondents whether it should be banned in the US.

“TikTok is spying on you,” one of the ads read, saying that the app had been “caught red handed” spying on users’ clipboards and monitoring what they type.

TikTok blasted Facebook for running the Trump campaign’s ad, saying that the social networking giant is “taking money for a political ad that attacks a competitor just as it’s preparing to launch a TikTok copycat.”

Facebook’s Instagram app will launch a new service in the coming weeks that copies TikTok’s wildly popular features. Instagram Reels, like TikTok, allows users to make 15-second video clips set to music.

TikTok has claimed that its alleged monitoring of users’ keystrokes was actually “a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior” and not a purposeful invasion of privacy.

The company is facing intense scrutiny in Washington over concerns that China could force it to turn over user data.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States was “certainly looking at” banning Chinese social media apps, including TikTok. India banned TikTok and other Chinese apps in June.

TikTok has said that it has never provided user data to China and that it would not do so if asked, saying in a statement that it has “no higher priority than promoting a safe app experience that protects our users’ privacy.”

With Post wires.