TikTok and its parent company ByteDance spent more than $7 million this year to prevent Congress from passing legislation banning the social media app in the United States.
ByteDance alone has spent $2.68 million on TikTok lobbying to resolve issues between Congress and federal officials in the first three months of this year. TikTok spent more than $4.5 million on a television and digital advertising campaign to push back against the ban.
Earlier, Congress passed the latest law related to TikTok on Saturday and if it is signed by Biden, ByteDance will be given about nine months to release the social media application or it will be banned in the US.
The Senate is set to vote on the latest TikTok bill on Tuesday. The Senate first approved a procedural vote on the foreign aid package containing the new TikTok legislation. A successful vote is a sign that the package may be on the verge of final approval.
The House passed a similar bill in March that would have given ByteDance about six months to divest TikTok assets. However, the legislation has stalled in the Senate.
The latest spending on internal lobbying does not take into account other payments made to outside consultants. Veteran lobbyist David Urban was paid $80,000 last quarter by ByteDance to try to influence Congress on a bill last March.
Additionally, most firms such as Urban and LGL Advisors were paid by ByteDance in certain quarters according to federal lobbying data.
According to records, TikTok has spent more than $400,000 since Jan. 1 on outside lobbying firms in Washington.
ByteDance's previous biggest spending on lobbying in the first quarter was in 2023 for over $1.8 million. According to data from OpenSecrets, ByteDance and TikTok spent more than $8 million on lobbying in 2023.
