TikTok ban: App wasted millions of dollars lobbying US Congress, data reveals

Lobbying and ad campaign failed to stop bill passing through US Senate

Jennifer Gay, a TikTok content creator, sits outside the US Capitol on 23 April, 2024, in Washington, DC (The Associated Press)

TikTok spent millions of dollars in a failed attempt to prevent a newly passed bill that could ban the app in the US, data has revealed.

The video-sharing app spent $4.5 million (£3.6m) on an ad campaign in the build up to the Senate vote on Tuesday, while TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance spent a further $2.68m in 2024 on in-house lobbyists.

The figures from data firm Adimpact do not take into account money spent on external consultants or outside lobbying firms.

“This expenditure reflects work we do to educate policymakers about how legislation could affect our community of 170 million American users,” a TikTok spokesperson told CNBC, who first reported the campaign.

US President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law, having previously signalled his intention to do so citing concerns that it poses a national security risk. TikTok has denied allegations that data from its US users is processed in China, while also dismissing fears that its algorithm could be used to serve propaganda to US citizens.

The new law will require ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company within the next year or face being deleted from app stores in the country.

TikTok has called the bill a violation of the First Amendment rights of Americans and said it would fight the legislation in court.

In a memo to US staff earlier this week, TikTok’s head of public policy Michael Beckerman wrote that it was “the beginning, not the end, of this long process”.

The divest-or-ban legislation is wrapped up in a broader bill that includes a massive foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine, leading to accusations from TikTok that the US was using support for those countries to push through the ban.

“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement.

TikTok is already banned on government and military devices in the US, as well as the state of Montana.

Countries that have already introduced a complete ban of TikTok include India, Iran and Senegal.