A defiant TikTok CEO Shou Chew urged Americans to “make your voices heard” to oppose a ban of the China-owned app – effectively thumbing his nose at House lawmakers who overwhelmingly passed a bill requiring its parent firm ByteDance to divest.
Chew doubled down on his company’s aggressive pressure campaign – even after TikTok reportedly enraged House lawmakers by sending a push notification pressuring users to call their local representatives to protest the laws ahead of the vote. TikTok appears poised to utilize the identical tactic against US senators.
“We consider we will overcome this together,” Chew said late Wednesday. “I encourage you to maintain sharing your stories. Share them along with your friends, share them along with your family, share them along with your senators. Protect your constitutional rights. Make your voices heard. Love you all.”
Within the short video, Chew called the results of Wednesday’s House’s vote “disappointing” and decried what he described as “loads of misinformation” in regards to the legislative push. He also signaled TikTok could be ‘exercising our legal rights” because the bill advances through Congress.
The Post has reached out to TikTok for further comment.
The House voted 352-65 in favor of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, easily clearing a two-thirds majority required for passage. As The Post reported, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is under major pressure to carry a vote on the bill.
On the eve of the vote, Chew and the remainder of TikTok’s leadership took the controversial step of enlisting users to lobby on its behalf. Multiple reports detailed how lawmakers were irate as their office phones rang off the hook with outreach from indignant TikTokers.
“I suppose when you’ve got a bajillion dollars, you may give you some crazy public affairs strategies,” a senior GOP aide told Axios last week. “But it surely’s backfiring as members are livid about all of the calls and misinformation.”
After the bill passed, lead sponsor Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) of the House China select committee was among the many lawmakers who said TikTok’s no-holds-barred approach had backfired.
The barrage of phone calls “provided members a preview of how the platform could possibly be weaponized to inject disinformation into our system,” Gallagher said.
TikTok has argued that the bill – which supplies TikTok’s China-based parent ByteDance six months to divest its stake – is a de facto ban. The corporate believes the 180-day window is simply too short to realistically achieve a sale, even when it were inclined to sell.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban,” TikTok said in a press release. “We’re hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, take heed to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”
On Thursday, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was putting together a bunch of investors to explore a possible acquisition of TikTok.
