TikTok lobbyists sprinkled cash into the campaign coffers for some House Democrats who later voted against a bill that could lead to the popular social media app being banned in the United States, records show.
In March, Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Greg Casar (D-TX), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) opposed the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed the House and would require the company ByteDance to sell off TikTok within six months or see its app face a ban. The three members accepted campaign donations in recent years from TikTok’s lobbying army in the U.S., with Bowman notably racking up hundreds of thousands of followers on the app.
That Clyburn, Casar, and Bowman have been boosted by the lobbyists is a window into TikTok’s sprawling efforts to gain influence and allies in Washington, D.C., among lawmakers, most of whom have increasingly soured on the app over national security concerns stemming from its China ties. TikTok admitted in 2022 that ByteDance, of which China’s government in 2019 took a 1% stake, spied on American journalists. Chinese businesses are required under the country’s “national intelligence law” to “support, assist, and cooperate with the state intelligence work,” and former ByteDance employees have said the company feeds information to the Chinese Communist Party.
President Joe Biden supports the anti-TikTok proposal, though it faces an unclear future in the Senate. Armed with funding from TikTok itself, some organizations are calling on lawmakers to block the bill over concerns about censorship and setting a precedent for foreign governments to target U.S. apps, the Washington Examiner reported.
Clyburn and his leadership political action committee have received at least $14,400 from Michael Hacker, Kim Lipsky, and Michael Bloom, who work for TikTok and are registered to lobby for ByteDance, according to Senate filings. The South Carolina Democrat also received roughly $3,200 combined in checks in 2022 and 2023 from TikTok lobbyist Ben McMakin at Crossroads Strategies and lobbyists at Mehlman Consulting, which first registered on behalf of TikTok in 2020.
“While I agree that national security is a top priority, I am always concerned when we appear to be singling out one company but ignoring the transgressions of others,” Clyburn told the Washington Examiner. “Data security and content moderation are true concerns. However, we need to find comprehensive solutions that apply to and mitigate potential risks arising on all social media platforms.”
The largest single donation from any TikTok employee to a federal committee this election cycle was $2,500 from Hacker to Clyburn’s PAC in May 2023. Hacker, Lipsky, and Bloom also made large donations to campaigns for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who has emphasized that the Senate should not be rushed to vote on the anti-TikTok bill, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), among others.
Hacker donated $1,000 in 2023 to Casar, who also received a $250 contribution from David Thomas, a partner at Mehlman Consulting listed on lobbying disclosures as working on behalf of TikTok. Thomas “is a top Democratic strategist with over two decades of experience in Washington’s public policy arena,” according to his staff page on the firm’s website.
Casar has a TikTok account with nearly 2,900 followers and another account with 3,200 followers. His campaign did not return a request for comment.
“I voted no on the TikTok forced sale bill,” Casar posted on X in March. “While I have serious data privacy concerns with TikTok, Republicans rapidly rushed this bill to a vote. That’s a recipe for unintended consequences. We need well-vetted protections for TikTok users. This bill simply may not work.”
Hacker also gave more than $1,500 to Bowman in 2023, according to campaign finance disclosures. Bowman has reached more than 240,000 followers on the app, while another one of his accounts has 6,400 followers.
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Bowman’s campaign did not return a request for comment. Bowman and other House Democrats have faced a flurry of ethics complaints in recent years in connection to allegations that they may have used TikTok illegally for campaign-related matters, the Washington Examiner reported.
“It’s hard to tell which is more concerning — Americans’ addiction to TikTok or extreme House Democrats’ addiction to TikTok money,” said Will Reinert, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.