Chinese-owned TikTok is slammed for covering the travel expenses of prominent influencers who gathered in Washington while the CEO of the firm testified before the US Congress.
According to the reports, the tech giant also compensated the lodging, food and other expenses of the said influencers who were encouraged to talk to their followers as they spoke with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Reports also revealed that the influencers arrived at Washington to protest against the Congress’ potential ban of Tiktok ahead of heated hearings on Capitol Hill.
According to Aidan Kohn-Murphy, a college freshman with around 300,000 TikTok followers and founder of the advocacy group Gen-Z for Change, “TikTok is not a children’s dancing app,” arguing that “it is one of the most powerful tools that young people have to engage each other and to get civically involved.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kohn-Murphy was one of the 20 famous TikTok personalities who took up the video-posting app on its invitation to lobby lawmakers prior to the Thursday’s hearing of the company’s CEO Shou Zi Chew.
TikTok Paid for an Astroturfed Mob of Influencers to Show Up as CEO Testified Before Congress That’s how the Democratic’s work. Paid sheep 🐑 https://t.co/cTGFXU5Eji— Misty “MJ” Jernigan (@MistyJernigan17) March 24, 2023
In the report published by The New York Post, the US reportedly “put Chew on the hot seat over TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., and how the app could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or promote divisive or manipulative content.”
The report came after the Biden administration demanded TikTok’s owners to sell their stake in the company or they would face a possible ban.
In response to the demand, multiple Tiktok influencers defended the platform, arguing that it is a vital platform to its 150 million American users.
“It would be difficult to be able to support a candidate that would take away something that is so integral to the direction we’re going as a society,” Baedri Nichole said. Nichole is a bakery owner from Columbus, Ohio, whose “hot cocoa bomb” confection is a hit on TikTok.
They also reportedly met with several lawmakers, such as New York Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Yvette Clarke.
“I’m aware of the popularity of the platform. I’m not oblivious,” Clarke, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a statement.
“However, it’s important to weigh our equities here. National security has to be addressed.” Clarke added.
