TikTok Holds America Hostage

There’s nothing remarkable about a commercial interest resisting the prospect of congressional regulation by using its influence to lean on legislators. For all the populist hostility toward the practice, lobbying is a constitutionally protected activity for good reason. But the way in which the Chinese-owned social-media app TikTok went about trying to convince lawmakers to leave it alone was unique. It sicced its youthful users on Washington in a campaign of intimidation and emotional blackmail, confirming that the air of menace the app has cultivated for itself is no accident.

As Jimmy Quinn chronicled, TikTok users resisted a proposal in Congress that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its holdings in the user-generated video content company. If it did not, the bill would compel American app stores to restrict access to TikTok. When the company mobilized its users to resist that legislation, they did so with all the vigor of an addict about to be cut off.