Kellyanne Conway, who used to serve as an aide to former President Donald Trump, is pushing back against bipartisan efforts that could lead to a potential ban of the social media app TikTok in the U.S.
The Club for Growth, a conservative organization that has been a staunch proponent of TikTok, is working with Conway to advocate for the Chinese-owned app in Congress, Politico first reported. The former Trump advisor has had at least 10 meetings with lawmakers in recent months to discuss the matter, according to the report.
Billionaire financier Jeff Yass, a top donor to the Club for Growth whose fund has a large stake in TikTok’s parent company, was recently a guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. The former president reportedly sought his support in the 2024 election. Not long after the meeting, Trump appeared to walk back his previous position advocating for a ban, writing on social media: “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business.”
TikTok has been under scrutiny by lawmakers over concerns about ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the app, handing over the data of millions of American TikTok users to its government upon request, posing a potential national security and data privacy threat. ByteDance has repeatedly denied that the app poses a threat to U.S. security, but bipartisan efforts have still been made to address the concerns.
On Thursday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted unanimously on a bipartisan bill, which was backed by the White House, that would force ByteDance to divest in the app within six months or risk a ban in U.S. app stores.
“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said in a statement.
While lawmakers have said that the bill is not an attempt to restrict the app, TikTok has argued that it is an “outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it.”
Conway has previously pushed back on calls to ban TikTok, stating that she “isn’t a huge ban things person,” the Hill reported. In a statement to Politico on Saturday, Conway said that “alienating 170 million monthly U.S. users” was “draconian” and “ill-advised.”
“If you want to hold China accountable, why are you starting with TikTok, and not the origins of the COVID crisis, the fentanyl crisis, the persecution of Uyghurs, and the vulnerability of Taiwan,” she said.
According to Politico, the former Trump aide has encouraged lawmakers to take a different approach by setting guardrails for TikTok and ByteDance on the use of American data. She emphasized to Republican policymakers that banning TikTok would create an obstacle to reaching young people, minorities and women, who are heavy users of the app.
TikTok has also joined civil liberties groups in opposition of the bill, arguing that it would be a free speech violation for the millions of Americans who use the app, The Washington Post reported.
“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” a TikTok spokesperson previously told HuffPost.
Last year, efforts were made to ban the app in Montana, but a federal judge struck it down, ruling that a ban would be unconstitutional. Other states have passed legislation to prevent employees from using the app on state devices, and the app has been banned on U.S. government devices.