Lawmakers across Capitol Hill are inundated with calls from TikTokers who’ve received an in-app pop-up urging them to call Congress and prevent the potential banning of TikTok.
The message asserts that Congress is planning a total ban on TikTok and encourages users to voice their concerns before what it claims is a threat to the Constitutional right to free expression for 170 million Americans.
The pop-up, shown to an undisclosed number of TikTokers, emphasizes the potential damage to businesses, livelihoods of creators, and the denial of artists an audience.
Users can enter their zip code to find their representative and make a call, rallying against the bipartisan bill introduced by the leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
The legislation, presented by Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, targets social media apps owned by entities subjected to foreign adversaries’ influence.
It incentivizes these apps to divest from parent companies in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea or face potential bans across U.S. app stores and web hosting services.
TikTok, however, perceives the legislation as an attack solely on its platform, interpreting it as a means to shut down TikTok completely. The company claims the bill, despite assertions otherwise, would trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and negatively impact 5 million small businesses.
In response to the bill, TikTok has taken the unusual step of deploying a pop-up message within the app, rallying its users to call representatives and oppose the legislation. While TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek confirmed that the notification was sent to users over the age of 18, details about the number of users who received the message, their locations, and the effectiveness of the call-to-action remain undisclosed.
Despite the bill’s intentions to address national security concerns while allowing apps like TikTok to operate, the company sees it as an outright ban. In a countermove, TikTok is leveraging its userbase to mount what Rep. Krishnamoorthi criticizes as a “massive propaganda campaign,” emphasizing that the legislation aims to ensure TikTok’s availability under new ownership and free from the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
