TikTok may not be in the best position at this moment as new shocking allegations are being put on the app and its respective Chinese parent firm ByteDance.
On Friday, an array of firms and their respective lobbying companies sent out disclosures that proved how the popular social media company and owner ByteDance spent more than $5.4 million on the likes of federal lobbying last year.
While ByteDance and TikTok’s spending in such a manner continued to remain flat between the likes of 2021 to 2022, both of these years highlighted major growth from 2020. During this time, the organizations spent a little more than $2.5 million.
This total expenditure is pale to the likes of spending from various competitors such as Instagram’s owner Meta and even Google which is the owner of YouTube. They each set out around $20 million in 2021 and about $12 million on the likes of lobbying.
In the past 10 years or so, and even after the 2016 election campaign in the US, huge tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and even Facebook went about enhancing their budgets for lobbying. And now, seeing TikTok fall in the same footsteps is interesting as it’s entering the hot seat.
In case you didn’t already know, the company has been on the target list for DC for a while now. American lawmakers aren’t happy with its behavior and have huge concerns about data tracking and sharing information with officials in China.
The fact that there could be some sort of a possibility linked to the Chinese Communist Party attaining data through the likes of the US is mindblowing and an absolute breach of users’ privacy. With time, TikTok continues to mention how it wouldn’t be keen on handing over data of American users to others, even if there were requests for it.
But that justification is not being seen as enough to keep many lawmakers happy.
For now, the platform is not up for grabs in the Chinese nation, and the app’s leadership is currently based in places like Los Angeles and even Singapore. However, both current and ex-employees spoke to Insider regarding staff members located in the Beijing Office. This was often on an internal basis as HQ does have the final call on a particular product launch across the platform.
During the latter part of 2020, the Trump admin tried to block the app from American app stores. Then in the White House, it was later agreed upon that a compromise would occur during which ByteDance may end up selling the company’s American operations to another US-based firm.
This is a plan that continued to fall through after US President Joe Biden attained a position in the office and ended up signing more executive orders that ended up with previous admin efforts. He further elaborated on how the country’s government needed to take a closer look at the threats on a national level that apps such as TikTok were serving via such rigorous analysis.
The admin even considered major rule changes that would end up providing the government more insight regarding apps that were tied to the likes of foreign spies based in China. There were so many concerns regarding the app as a major threat outside the White House too.
TikTok has tried over and over again to prove that it’s innocent and willing to make more changes to ensure it does not lose out on its American market. The news comes as lawmakers in several states were barred from downloading the platform. And those that did already have it installed were required to delete it.
Read next: Users On TikTok Can Now Receive Direct Messages From Anyone
On Friday, an array of firms and their respective lobbying companies sent out disclosures that proved how the popular social media company and owner ByteDance spent more than $5.4 million on the likes of federal lobbying last year.
While ByteDance and TikTok’s spending in such a manner continued to remain flat between the likes of 2021 to 2022, both of these years highlighted major growth from 2020. During this time, the organizations spent a little more than $2.5 million.
This total expenditure is pale to the likes of spending from various competitors such as Instagram’s owner Meta and even Google which is the owner of YouTube. They each set out around $20 million in 2021 and about $12 million on the likes of lobbying.
In the past 10 years or so, and even after the 2016 election campaign in the US, huge tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and even Facebook went about enhancing their budgets for lobbying. And now, seeing TikTok fall in the same footsteps is interesting as it’s entering the hot seat.
In case you didn’t already know, the company has been on the target list for DC for a while now. American lawmakers aren’t happy with its behavior and have huge concerns about data tracking and sharing information with officials in China.
The fact that there could be some sort of a possibility linked to the Chinese Communist Party attaining data through the likes of the US is mindblowing and an absolute breach of users’ privacy. With time, TikTok continues to mention how it wouldn’t be keen on handing over data of American users to others, even if there were requests for it.
But that justification is not being seen as enough to keep many lawmakers happy.
For now, the platform is not up for grabs in the Chinese nation, and the app’s leadership is currently based in places like Los Angeles and even Singapore. However, both current and ex-employees spoke to Insider regarding staff members located in the Beijing Office. This was often on an internal basis as HQ does have the final call on a particular product launch across the platform.
During the latter part of 2020, the Trump admin tried to block the app from American app stores. Then in the White House, it was later agreed upon that a compromise would occur during which ByteDance may end up selling the company’s American operations to another US-based firm.
This is a plan that continued to fall through after US President Joe Biden attained a position in the office and ended up signing more executive orders that ended up with previous admin efforts. He further elaborated on how the country’s government needed to take a closer look at the threats on a national level that apps such as TikTok were serving via such rigorous analysis.
The admin even considered major rule changes that would end up providing the government more insight regarding apps that were tied to the likes of foreign spies based in China. There were so many concerns regarding the app as a major threat outside the White House too.
TikTok has tried over and over again to prove that it’s innocent and willing to make more changes to ensure it does not lose out on its American market. The news comes as lawmakers in several states were barred from downloading the platform. And those that did already have it installed were required to delete it.
Read next: Users On TikTok Can Now Receive Direct Messages From Anyone
