Phone lines on Capitol Hill were flooded for the second time in a week as children and parents beg lawmakers not to ban the popular social media app TikTok.
The calls have been ringing red since last Wednesday, when the House China Select Committee advanced a measure that would specifically designate ByteDance and TikTok as applications controlled by foreign adversaries.
If TikTok does not divest parent company ByteDance, it could be banned across the US, according to the bill, which will be voted on in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It has a good chance of becoming law, as a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed the bill and Joe Biden has said he would sign it.
As the bill has gained momentum, so has the opposition. Elon Musk joined Donald Trump in opposing efforts to control TikTok’s influence, calling it government censorship, in a post on X Tuesday.
‘This law isn’t just about TikTok, it’s about censorship and government control! If it were just about TikTok, it would only mention ‘foreign control’ as an issue, but that’s not the case,” Musk said.
On Tuesday morning, TikTok sent a push notification to its users (it has more than 100 million) saying, “Your voice matters to stop the shutdown.”
TikTok sent this notice to users Tuesday morning, asking them to contact their lawmakers to let them know if they support the TikTok bill
Lawmakers accused TikTok of providing its US user data to Chinese parent company ByteDance, which they say has ties to the Chinese Communist Party
The notification prompted users to contact their member of Congress to urge them to vote against the proposed bill.
As a result, congressional offices received hundreds of calls about the bill Tuesday morning, congressional aides told DailyMail.com.
Many callers appeared to be children or concerned parents pleading for the app not to be banned.
Users are told that the bill threatens TikTok’s survival, but what it actually does is force the parent company to divest — something callers are largely in favor of once employees explain the bill’s nuance.
“TikTok’s campaign to have users call their representatives shows how much control they have. This campaign is reminiscent of typical Communist Party tactics,” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-NC, told DailyMail.com in a statement.
“Unfortunately, these callers don’t understand what they are really advocating: they are following orders from Beijing. The CCP hopes to copy its modus operandi of telling its citizens what to do.”
His office phones “exploded” according to staff.
Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., told DailyMail.com that he is in favor of the bill and despite the flood of calls: “We will talk to any voter who wants to call us and talk to us through this avenue.”
“We explain our position, and it is a normal part of the process,” he said.
Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., told DailyMail.com that while he doesn’t yet know how he will vote on the bill, “he won’t because 16-year-olds are calling me from all over the country.”
The House China Select Committee last week accused CCP officials of using TikTok to spy on the locations of US users and dictate its algorithm to carry out influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.
If the bill is passed, ByteDance will have five months after signing the law to get rid of TikTok. If not, app stores and web hosting platforms are not allowed to distribute it in the US
The bill passed the committee last week on a unanimous 50-0 vote.
However, the bill also faces notable opposition that goes beyond just children and their parents.
TikTok sent this notice to users last week after the bill was introduced
Last week, former President Donald Trump threw cold water on the bipartisan bill, saying that if TikTok is banned, its rival Facebook would “double their revenue.”
“I don’t want Facebook, which cheated in the last election, to do better,” Trump wrote. ‘They are a real enemy of the people!’
Lawmakers have also expressed reservations about how the TikTok bill could affect First Amendment protections.
“I think it’s a terrible idea and it’s the hysteria that’s sweeping through both parties now.” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told DailyMail.com on Friday.
“In America, we don’t just tell people that you can’t have a business because we don’t like you. And 150 million people are using their First Amendment freedom to express themselves on TikTok, and you can’t just take that away from them.”
Fellow Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie agreed.
‘The so-called TikTok ban is a Trojan horse. The president will have the power to ban websites, not just apps,” he wrote on X.
It is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.