TikTok sent pop-up alerts to users asking them to sway representatives against legislation set to be advanced Thursday to restrict China’s influence over the social media platform, prompting a harsh rebuke from the bill’s author.
TikTok prompted users to input their ZIP codes and provided them with contact information for lawmakers, telling them to “stop a TikTok shutdown.” It undertook the effort as the House Energy and Commerce Committee was meeting to discuss and advance a bill written by House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or have it banned from the United States.
Gallagher slammed the app in response, saying it was lying about the bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, in an effort to
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