TikTok uses pop-up messages to rally users against House bill, prompting rebuke from Gallagher

TikTok sent pop-up alerts to users asking them to sway representatives against legislation set to be advanced Thursday to restrict China’s influence over the social media platform, prompting a harsh rebuke from the bill’s author.

TikTok prompted users to input their ZIP codes and provided them with contact information for lawmakers, telling them to “stop a TikTok shutdown.” It undertook the effort as the House Energy and Commerce Committee was meeting to discuss and advance a bill written by House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or have it banned from the United States.