Companies spend millions trying to build a brand and a following, but their companies can be destroyed by one woke ad or one act of Congress.
And while there are some apps we can’t seem to live without, there are others that may pose a national security threat.
Now this popular app is spending millions to prevent its extinction at the hands of Congress.
TikTok spends $7 million ahead of potential ban
TikTok is in dire trouble as the app faces scrutiny and a potential ban by the US government.
Now, the app and its China-based parent company ByteDance have spent over $7 million combined so far this year.
The spending is part of an ad campaign to try and stop Congress from passing a law that would ban the social media app in the United States.
ByteDance spent a record $2.68 million on in-house TikTok lobbyists to try and target Congress and federal officials already this year, according to information from new lobbying disclosure reports.
And TikTok spent over $4.5 million already this year on TV and digital ad campaigns to try and push back on the same legislation, per data from Adimpact.
According to a TikTok spokesperson, “This expenditure reflects work we do to educate policymakers about how legislation could affect our community of 170 million American users.”
The lobbyist disclosures reveal how officials from TikTok lobbied Congress and President Biden’s executive office over the last quarter.
Some of the offices TikTok has lobbied this year include the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of the US Trade Representative, among others.
Meanwhile, the House passed TikTok-related legislation that, if signed into law, would give ByteDance approximately nine months to divest TikTok or be banned in the US.
The Senate is preparing to vote on the most recent bill and first passed a procedural vote on a foreign aid package, which contains the new legislation, signaling that the package will likely receive final approval.
In March, the House passed a similar bill that would have given ByteDance around six months to divest TikTok, but it was stalled in the Senate.
Additional money is being spent
TikTok’s spending figures on government lobbying don’t include extra money paid to external consultants like veteran lobbyist David Urban, who was paid $80,000 last quarter by ByteDance.
The goal was to have Urban influence Congress on the March bill, per a disclosure report.
This payment marks the most that Urban’s firm, LGL Advisors, has ever received from ByteDance in any quarter.
At the time of publishing, neither Urban nor a White House spokesperson has commented about the issue.
Since January 1 of this year, TikTok has spent over $400,000 on outside lobbying firms.
Previously, the most that ByteDance spent on lobbying during the first quarter was over $1.8 million in 2023.
According to data from OpenSecrets, ByteDance and TikTok spent $8 million combined on lobbying in all of 2023.
Informed American will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
