Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced his presence on TikTok on Tuesday in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter.
Mullin's entry onto the platform occurred after the Department of Justice issued a memo stating that the sale of TikTok had invalidated a 2022 law prohibiting its use on government-issued devices. The memo indicated that executive departments, including Homeland Security, the Treasury, and the Interior, had begun joining TikTok.
Prior to this, national security concerns had led to bipartisan scrutiny of TikTok for years. Former President Donald Trump had previously threatened to ban the app through an executive order near the end of his first term. However, his stance shifted after leaving office, as he publicly opposed a ban before Congress passed legislation in April 2024 requiring the Chinese tech firm ByteDance to relinquish majority ownership or face a ban.
Mullin, who already had nearly 209,000 followers on the app at the time of the report, voted in favor of the bill. This legislation also included substantial aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza.
After reentering office in January 2025, Trump directed the Justice Department not to enforce the law and extended the divestiture deadline for ByteDance multiple times. Before the final deadline in January, the U.S. approved a deal where ByteDance retained a stake, though it was less than the 20 percent maximum share stipulated in the 2024 law.
Some lawmakers, including Republicans, have expressed concerns that the recent deal was too favorable to ByteDance and noted that the app utilizes a ByteDance-licensed algorithm. Congressman John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, stated in January that "The Chinese Communist Party cannot be allowed to weaponize an app to divide and weaken our country."
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.