TikTok’s fate in the United States may depend on a new bill passed by Congress, but the company’s massive campaign urging users to speak out with their representatives could end up doing more harm than good.
On Thursday, TikTok flooded its users’ phones with a push notification and a message to “Stop TikTok Shutting Down,” with a link that allowed users to quickly call their representatives from within the app. The campaign has led to hundreds if not thousands of calls to lawmakers, according to multiple outlets, but it has also highlighted TikTok’s massive influence — exactly what some elected officials see as the primary danger in a foreign-controlled company that shapes opinions of such a large group of Americans.
One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), he told CBS News that the TikTok campaign targeted minors who didn’t know what a deputy was. While TikTok’s initiative was intended to convince lawmakers to oppose the bill, Krishnamoorthi said it actually demonstrates why so many members of Congress voted to push it forward.
“They don’t want a social media app controlled by foreign adversaries using geolocation to target minor children to call members of Congress or interfere in our elections,” he said.
The U.S. government has not conclusively proven that China is accessing TikTok user data, and the company has said it will not hand over the data to the Chinese government. A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment.
The TikTok bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would give TikTok five months to cut ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or risk being banned from app markets in the United States. Marketplaces that violate the law would risk a $5,000 fine per user of the app, which could net violating companies billions of dollars, thanks to TikTok’s huge user base.
Despite being introduced just earlier this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has already voted unanimously in favor of moving the bill forward. Key lawmakers have also said they will support the bill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and President Biden said Friday afternoon that he would sign the legislation if it reached his desk. However, in the Senate, some lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) remain opposed to the bill.
Supportive lawmakers argue that the bill is not a ban but rather a choice because it gives the company the ability to separate from its Chinese parent company. However, TikTok has painted the legislation as an attack on the free expression of its 170 million American users.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban on TikTok in the United States,” the company said in a statement declaration.
In the past, other technology companies have used their influence to influence users’ opinions on laws that affect them. When New York City was considering a law in 2015 that would limit the number of drivers in the city, Uber built a fake wait time meter into its app that showed how long it would take to find a driver if the law were passed, and urged users to send an email of opposition to then-Mayor Bill DeBlasio and the City Council.
The bill that could ban TikTok still needs to pass the House floor and then pass the Senate before it has a chance to become law.