‘Confused’ TikTokers deluge US lawmakers’ phones

US congressional offices have told the BBC they are being deluged with calls from TikTok users about legislation that could see the popular app banned.

Callers range from teenagers to the elderly, and most are “really confused and are calling because ‘TikTok told me to'”, one Republican staffer revealed.

A Democratic staffer said the most aggressive and threatening calls their office received came from adult women.

Sources agreed the desperate lobbying effort had backfired on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers have long accused TikTok’s parent company ByteDance of having links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – something denied by ByteDance and TikTok.

While government entities have so far failed to prove the allegations, their concerns have only grown with the app’s soaring popularity. TikTok says it is now used by more than 170 million monthly US users.

A bill proposed by the bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers who form the US House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the CCP would mandate the sale of TikTok by ByteDance within six months or see the social media app face removal from mobile app stores in the US.

The effort advanced on Thursday by a unanimous 50-0 vote through the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It will be voted on by the full House next Wednesday and appears to have enough support to advance to the Senate and then on to the president’s desk.

The threat of such swift passage has drawn a frantic last-minute push by TikTok to mobilise users directly against those responsible for the legislation.

TikTok confirmed to the BBC it had sent a notification urging TikTokers to “call your representative now” to urge them to vote against the measure.

Florida Congressman Neal Dunn’s office told the BBC it has received more than 900 calls from TikTokers, “many of which were vulnerable school-aged children” and some of whose extreme rhetoric had to be flagged for security reasons.

Mr Dunn, a Republican, is an original co-sponsor of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

“This effort by ByteDance validated the Congressman’s concerns,” his office said in a statement.

“American phones were geolocated and TikTok users were locked out of the platform until they called their members of Congress. ByteDance weaponized the app against America, and that is exactly why the Congressman supports this measure.”

The BBC has asked TikTok for comment on those allegations.

Carlos Gimenez, a Florida colleague who sits alongside Mr Dunn on the CCP select committee, said he would not be deterred from voting for the bill “regardless of TikTok’s targeted campaign against members of Congress”.

A spokesperson for New York Democrat Ritchie Torres – a joint leader of the legislation – confirmed that his office too has received “seemingly endless calls” though none were of a threatening nature.

“I am deeply troubled by reports of young people calling Congress, threatening to commit suicide or otherwise harm themselves,” Mr Torres said in a statement to the BBC.

“The iron grip that TikTok has on the minds of young people is a profound public health hazard.”

Staffers to other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also reported hundreds of calls to their offices, from app users young and old, who do not have a clear idea of either who or why they are calling.

“We’ve gotten calls from people who are angry and screaming, some people who are asking kindly if TikTok is going to be banned, and some have said TikTok wouldn’t let them on the app without calling their [representative],” a spokesperson for Dusty Johnson told the BBC.

“We’ve had callers that sound 12 years old and callers that sound like they are in their sixties,” the source continued.

Mr Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, has been outspoken about the national security threat posed by TikTok and is supportive of the proposed bill, “so it’s certainly possible that our office is targeted because of those things”, his spokesperson added.

“TikTok’s defensive efforts make it clear they don’t want to divest from ByteDance, whether that is TikTok’s decision or ByteDance’s top-down order to TikTok.”