On a calm Thursday morning, American TikTok users were met with a message upon opening the app – a full-screen reminder urging them to take action against a possible TikTok ban.
Speak up now – before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO.
Beneath the statement, users were presented with a standing red button labeled “call now” that would allow them to make their voices heard.
The popular video-sharing app, TikTok, has been under close scrutiny in the United States for some time now. Last year, CEO Shou Zi Chew of TikTok appeared before Congress for an extensive five-hour hearing to address lawmakers’ concerns over the possibility of Chinese authorities accessing American user data. While TikTok is an American company, it is owned by the Chinese-based company, ByteDance. Chew has consistently denied claims that TikTok and ByteDance act as a direct channel for the Chinese government’s interest. However, in a separate instance, several ByteDance employees were terminated for gaining unauthorized access to the IP addresses of journalists in order to track their whereabouts.
TikTok is already banned on government-issued phones in numerous states, and this week has brought an escalation in the app’s struggles with the U.S. government. A newly proposed bill would grant the president the power to label any social media app as a national security threat, potentially resulting in its removal from app stores. The bill’s sponsors have strongly encouraged TikTok to sever ties with ByteDance in order to avoid this fate; otherwise, the app risks losing its vast user base of 170 million Americans.
TikTok has confirmed to TechCrunch that this message was displayed to American users over the age of 18, but our own testing has shown that not all users in this demographic have received the pop-up.
In past battles with Congress, the platform has turned to its own community of creators for support. When CEO Chew made his initial appearance before Congress last year, TikTok invited a group of its popular influencers, including UnderTheDeskNews creator Vitus Spehar, to join in lobbying efforts in Washington D.C.
“Congress has made it evident that they lack understanding of TikTok and fail to listen to their constituents who are active members of the TikTok community. They are also using these unfounded fears surrounding the app as an excuse to push through legislation that would give them the power to ban any app they deem unsafe in the future,” Spehar stated in an interview with TechCrunch at the time.
