TikTok is planning an influencer invasion of Washington as it tries to stave off stricter regulation, or even a ban, by US lawmakers.
Driving the news: As TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew prepares to testify before the US Congress on Thursday, the social media company is preparing to send dozens of influencers to Capitol Hill in a last-ditch PR blitz.
Catch up: The Biden administration reportedly told the company last week that TikTok could be banned in the US if Beijing-based parent ByteDance doesn’t sell it.
- Western officials have grown increasingly concerned that ByteDance could use TikTok for surveillance or intelligence operations.
- ByteDance has argued (so far without much success) that its proposal to house data on Western users in US-based data centres would address those concerns.
Why it matters: TikTok wants to remind US officials that banning the app of choice for young people could spark a political backlash, including among the creators who make a living through the platform.
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Over two-thirds of American teens use TikTok, and a quarter of adults under 30 use it as a news source.
- Creators’ earnings vary pretty widely, but top influencers can make hundreds of thousands of dollars through sponsored posts.
- Over a quarter of Canadians have a TikTok account, and Canadian content creators have tens of millions of followers. A US ban would cut them off from a huge source of entertainment and followers, respectively.
What’s next: It’s not clear who ByteDance could even sell TikTok to: The $50 billion company would only be affordable to tech giants like Meta and Microsoft, and they’re already under antitrust scrutiny from regulators over other acquisitions.