TikTok’s lobbying shop includes former members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, numerous former staffers for congressional leaders, and a top adviser for former President Donald Trump’s campaigns.
A Washington Examiner review found the social media giant’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and TikTok itself have embarked on a heavy-hitting bipartisan lobbying endeavor, paying an army of lobbyists including former Sens. Trent Lott (R-MS) and John Breaux (D-LA) and former Reps. Jeffrey Dunham (R-CA) and Barton Gordon (D-TN).
TIKTOK SPENDS RECORD AMOUNT ON LOBBYING BLITZ TARGETING HOUSE, SENATE, AND WHITE HOUSE
The lobbying team also includes at least 31 former congressional staffers nearly evenly split between parties, including those who worked for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
TikTok hired the D.C.-based Crossroads Strategies, and disclosures show Lott, who served as both Senate majority and minority leader from 1996 to 2003, is a lobbyist for ByteDance. Another ByteDance lobbyist at Crossroads worked as director of defense policy for Lott. Breaux, in the House and Senate from the 1970s to 2005, is also a TikTok lobbyist, and another lobbyist there worked for Breaux and another former Senate Democrat. Crossroads’s vice president, also a TikTok lobbyist, previously worked for a current Senate Democrat.
ByteDance hired K&L Gates law firm, whose lobbyists in 2022 included Gordon, who served from 1985 to 2011, including as chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, and Denham, who was in Congress from 2010 to 2018. Stacy Ettinger, who worked for Schumer from 2007 to 2016, is also a lobbyist.
“It’s abhorrent that any American, let alone former members and staffers, would sell out their country to make a quick buck courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner. “Congress has to get serious about this issue, and that starts with tightening Foreign Agents Registration Act restrictions and completing banning former members of Congress and high-ranking executive branch officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign interests.”
Also among the ByteDance lobbyists, registered through LGL Partners, is David Urban, former senior adviser for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. ByteDance lobbied through American Continental Group, whose president was Urban, and he also served as president of North American corporate affairs for ByteDance in 2020 and 2021.
TikTok and ByteDance spent a record $2.37 million on lobbying this spring. The increase comes as Republicans push the Biden administration to crack down on TikTok over national security concerns.
ByteDance’s disclosures show 13 lobbyists, including six who worked for congressional Republicans and four for Democrats.
Michael Bloom, a TikTok public policy specialist since July 2020, worked for Pelosi from 2005 until 2017, including as senior adviser, and she praised him when he left.
Freddy Barnes, a public policy representative for TikTok since 2020, was McCarthy’s political director from 2013 to 2018 and his strategic adviser in 2019.
TikTok lobbyists also include staffers for former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), former Senate Majority Leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Bill Frist (R-TN), and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).
Derrick Dockery, who has done government affairs work for TikTok since 2020, was business and intergovernmental coalitions director for Ryan from 2016 to 2019.
Brendan Carr, the top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, told the Washington Examiner: “It’s a very precarious time for people to be tying their reputations to this company.”
He added: “The tide is going out on TikTok, and the concerns about it are growing and bipartistan.”
TikTok’s head of public policy in the Americas worked for House Republicans, its director of federal government affairs worked for Senate Republicans, its federal government affairs manager worked for House and Senate Republicans, and its director of global public policy was chief of staff for a House Republican. One of TikTok’s government relations officials was a Democratic staff director for the commerce committee, and one of its global public policy leaders worked for House Democrats.
ByteDance and TikTok spent $550,000 lobbying in 2019, $3.92 million in 2020, $6.54 million in 2021, and $3.58 million so far this year.
Carr pointed to recent leaks from inside TikTok, including ByteDance promoting pro-China content and an internal TikTok messaging document on how to “downplay the China association.”
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“It is increasingly clear that there are sets of people inside TikTok that are sending out red flares in terms of the company’s ties back into the CCP,” Carr said.
ByteDance also hired the lobbying firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, with nine lobbyists who worked for congressional Democrats and eight for Republicans, including for Reid, Frist, and DeLay, and who had worked in the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama White Houses.
