How TikTok and its parent company spent over $13 million on struggling lobbying campaign

TikTok and its parent company have since spent greater than $13 million lobbying federal government officials 2019 — an effort that seems to return to nothing as lawmakers push through proposals targeting the Chinese company’s ownership of the app, and even seek to ban TikTok altogether within the US.

weeks after Republican Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado and Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced laws that may ban TikTok downloads nationwide, Buck’s employees received a call in February from Michael Beckerman, the social media firm’s head of public policy. someone near Buck.

Beckerman dismissed Buck’s employees’ concerns that TikTok was collecting customer data and advocated the corporate’s recent initiative referred to as Project Texas, the person explained. Project Texas is TikTok’s try to put US customer data right into a secure hub run by the tech giant Oraclewhich is to ease US government concerns that the knowledge could also be accessed by ByteDance’s Chinese parent company or members of the ruling party in China.

The lobbying comes as a part of TikTok’s ongoing efforts to assuage fears from lawmakers trying to ban the app, which has 150 million monthly lively users within the U.S. The company has tried to indicate that it may possibly address user information concerns without an outright ban, but most lawmakers have On controversial hearing on TikTok this month seemed unconvinced that Project Texas would properly do it.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told US lawmakers during a hearing that Chinese ByteDance employees could have had access to some US data from the app. However, he assured that employees would not have this data after Project Texas ended.

Persistent lobbying pressure and Chew’s testimony has up to now not stopped Capitol’s efforts to sever TikTok’s ties with its Chinese owner or restrict access to the app.

TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter didn’t deny any element of this story. She defended the work of the Washington, D.C., TikTok team and said the corporate was trying to handle lawmakers’ privacy and security concerns.

“Our Washington DC team is – and has all the time been – focused on educating policymakers and stakeholders about our company and our services,” said Oberwetter. “We will proceed our work to coach lawmakers and the U.S. public about our progress in deploying Project Texas to handle national security concerns, and we’ll proceed to work with lawmakers, stakeholders, and our partners on solutions that address industry-wide concerns. privacy and security.”

One of the leading proposals targeting TikTok is the RESTRICT bill, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators led by Senator Mark Warner, D-Va. and John Thune, RS.D. The bill, which doesn’t yet have an accompanying bill within the House, would give the Commerce secretary the facility to evaluate the national security risks related to certain technology deals with firms or individuals in a select group of foreign adversary countries, including China. The secretary of commerce could recommend the president to take motion, as much as a ban.

Another proposal is the DATA bill, introduced by Representative Mike McCaul of R-Texas. This would invalidate the protections which have normally protected creative content from US sanctions. It would also authorize the president to sanction firms based in China that transfer sensitive personal details about Americans to individuals or firms in China. The proposal passed the Republican Party-led House Foreign Relations Committee along party lines, and Democrats feared it was rushed.

At the farthest extreme is Hawley and Buck’s laws, which simply seeks to ban TikTok altogether, directing the president to dam transactions with ByteDance.

Since talking to Beckerman, Buck has not stopped wanting calling the app a threat to national security. Buck’s employees responded to Beckerman that they remained concerned in regards to the company’s privacy, cybersecurity and national security policies, an individual near Buck said.

Another Colorado lawmaker ally said lobbying money was being wasted trying to vary Buck’s mind. “It’s like they’re setting fire to their money,” a Republican strategist allied with Buck told CNBC.

Another Republican Party strategist acquainted with TikTok’s lobbying efforts told CNBC that the corporate’s “last-minute” lobbying for Capitol Hill within the weeks before Chew’s testimony was “amateur hour.” The person said congressional offices sometimes refused to satisfy with company representatives, and TikTok officials didn’t contact key lawmakers like Hawley who targeted the app.

Hawley has not softened his campaign to ban TikTok. On Wednesday, he tried to win the unanimous support of the Senate to advance his bill. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, now a part of a small group of bipartisan lawmakers who opposed attempts to dam access to the app, blocked Hawley’s laws. While there are numerous lawmakers who’ve yet to state that a ban is mandatory, only a handful have explicitly ruled it out.

Those who declined to be named on this story did so to talk freely about private conversations and meetings. A spokeswoman for Hawley didn’t return a request for comment.

According to congressman aides and advisers, the interaction with Buck’s team is just one among many instances where lobbyists from TikTok or its Chinese parent company ByteDance have seen their campaigns go dead on Capitol. The incontrovertible fact that some lawmakers have shown little interest in listening to TikTok’s leadership is the most recent sign that the corporate might have more congressional allies to forestall recent app restrictions or a possible ban.

Warner met with TikTok lobbyists earlier this yr, in accordance with an individual on the meeting on the senator’s office. Virginia and Thune lawmakers later introduced a bill that may authorize the Secretary of Commerce to take motion against TikTok. The White House has since approved the bill and urged Congress to pass it in order that President Joe Biden can sign it into law.

Warner’s office didn’t return a request for comment.

TikTok appears to have stepped up lobbying just before Chew’s testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The company flew TikTok influencers to Washington before the event.

The company also had allies in a handful of Democratic lawmakers corresponding to Representative Jamaal Bowman, DN.Y. The day before the hearing, he and creators of popular content on the app held a press conference to oppose the potential ban.

But in private meetings, a number of the same influencers told Bowman that laws have to be passed to guard their data across all social media platforms, including TikTok, while keeping the app intact, in accordance with an adviser acquainted with the discussions.

Regardless of their impact on lawmakers, the creators’ pleas to take care of access to TikTok within the US looked as if it would resonate with many US users who see the app as a source of entertainment, information, and even income. During and after the hearing, TikTok users shared clips of MPs asking basic inquiries to the president, mocking Congress for what they saw as a lack of know-how of technology.

But based on five hours of tense questioning by members of either side through the trial, the makers’ appeals didn’t appear to balance lawmakers’ deep concerns in regards to the app’s connections to China, in addition to the addictive and potentially harmful properties of its design.

“I do not think they’ve convinced any lawmakers,” said Alex Moore, director of communications for Congressman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., of TikTok’s lobbying ahead of the hearing. Bringing in TikTok creators to bolster the corporate’s message “didn’t persuade my boss,” Moore added.

Still, Moore said his office has been hearing quite a bit from voters because the trial. He said the calls about TikTok would “flow in” before he testified. But then “our phones rang non-stop” with most callers expressing opposition to the TikTok ban.

“We heard overwhelmingly that this will not be what our constituents are all for,” he said.

Although often such a conversation “starts hot”, Moore said ingredients he tended to calm down when staff explained that Schakowsky wanted comprehensive privacy laws in order to not “leave other firms” out of comparable data practices.

Schakowsky told CNBC immediately after the hearing that there would likely still be “further discussion” on tips on how to address concerns directly related to TikTok’s Chinese ownership. But Schakowsky, who was a co-sponsor bilateral privacy laws who passed the committee on the last congress, said she hoped the hearing would give a recent impetus to privacy protections that may also apply to other big tech firms.

The lobbying efforts of TiKTok and ByteDance are directly related.

ByteDance’s quarterly lobbying reports show that every one of their internal lobbyists work for TikTok. These include Beckerman, who once worked as political director for former Michigan Republican Fred Upton, together with Freddy Barnes, who worked within the office of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

TikTok itself has hired its own legion of outdoor lobbyists. Her most up-to-date recruits include former California congressman Jeff Denham and Ankit Desai, a former Biden adviser when he was a member of the U.S. Senate.

ByteDance and TikTok combined have spent greater than $13 million on federal lobbying since 2019, in accordance with lobbying disclosure reports and data reviewed by OpenSecrets.

Most of the social app lobbying spend comes from ByteDance. TikTok’s parent company spent $5.3 million on federal lobbying in 2022, a recent record for the corporate, in accordance with unbiased OpenSecrets.

TikTok alone has spent just over $900,000 on third-party lobbying consultants as of 2020.

ByteDance too last yr he donated greater than $400,000 to non-profit organizations allied with members of Congress for “honorable expenses.”

The document shows that ByteDance donated a complete of $300,000 to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, groups affiliated with mostly Democratic caucuses within the House of Representatives. Each of those organizations lists Jesse Price, TikTok’s chief public policy officer, as a board member or advisory board member.

Beckerman, a top TikTok lobbyist, signed a report showing contributions by ByteDance.

TikTok and ByteDance have also been targeting Biden’s White House executive office with lobbying since 2020, in accordance with leaked reports.

The White House didn’t reply to an issue about further details in regards to the lobbying.