Krishnamoorthi, Gallagher to TikTok CEO: "TikTok Blatantly Deceived Americans"

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party today wrote to TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, demanding that TikTok immediately stop deceiving its users and broadcasting false information about the lawmakers' bill, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

In part, the lawmakers write, "Last week, TikTok distributed the following messages to many of its American users: ‘Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok. Speak up now—before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO. Call now.’ & ‘TikTok is at risk of being shut down in the US. Call your representative now.'"

They continue, "These messages are deceptive. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act does not ban TikTok. Rather, it gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control—which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership—to remain available in the United States. All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in U.S. app stores. But TikTok would have no one but itself to blame—it would be choosing this path by opting for CCP control rather than Americans’ privacy and national security.”

Read the letter to TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew HERE or read below.

Click HERE to read more about the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

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Dear Mr. Chew,

We write to demand that TikTok stop spreading false claims in its campaign to manipulate and mobilize American citizens on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. In pop-up ads that it forced users to engage with ahead of a key congressional vote, it appears that TikTok blatantly deceived Americans—claiming that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is a “total ban of TikTok.” TikTok’s deceptive pop-up pressured its users to lobby Congress on TikTok’s behalf to “stop a TikTok shutdown.” Even more worrying, TikTok solicited location information in its pressure campaign. 

Last week, TikTok distributed the following messages to many of its American users: “Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok. Speak up now—before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO. Call now.” & “TikTok is at risk of being shut down in the US. Call your representative now.”

These messages are deceptive. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act does not ban TikTok. Rather, it gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control—which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership—to remain available in the United States. All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in U.S. app stores. But TikTok would have no one but itself to blame—it would be choosing this path by opting for CCP control rather than Americans’ privacy and national security.

Simply put, the future of TikTok rests squarely in the hands of TikTok and ByteDance.

Although TikTok’s false statements last week may be a new low—as its CCP-controlled parent company ByteDance fears it may lose access to the sensitive data of over 170 million American citizens—these desperate actions are consistent with the pattern of the CCP exerting malign influence over the application. Top U.S. national security officials—including the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency—agree that, as it stands today under ByteDance ownership, TikTok is a threat to U.S. national security and to everyday Americans.

Using your platform to deceive the American people about bipartisan U.S. legislation underscores the clear necessity of the bill currently under consideration. Next week, TikTok could be spreading false information about a war. This fall, it could be about our elections.

TikTok must stop deceiving the American people and free yourself of CCP control.

The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and Chinese Communist Party has broad authority to “investigate and submit policy recommendations on the status of the Chinese Communist Party’s economic, technological, and security progress and its competition with the United States” under H. Res. 11.