As TikTok has been making efforts to stop Congress from imposing a forced sale or ban of the app, the company has garnered negative attention, and some of the backlash is being directed at a lobbyist who allegedly used aggressive and unethical tactics.
Michael Beckerman, a tech-industry operative and ex-member of GOP Hill, joined TikTok in 2020 as the head of public policy, and contributed to developing its government strategy as calls to ban the app increased, testifying on behalf of the company at a Senate hearing in 2021.
Now, Beckerman is under fire for allegations of using abrasive policies and methods to get Congress to lift the ultimatum.
As the bipartisan bill moved toward being passed last month in Ukraine/Israel aid package, TikTok organized a campaign to mobilize 170 million Americans users through push notifications on the app, with CEO Shou Chew urging users to “make your voices heard.”
Although the initiative reportedly led to people making ominous and aggressive calls to U.S. officials, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) calling the police after receiving a voicemail that said “I’ll find you and shoot you and cut you into pieces.” The caller reportedly threatened that he would do this the senator voted for the TikTok bill.
DC officials reported that they traced the phone call to Beckerman, though another political officials says that the call and others like it were coming from TikTok users in significant numbers.
“These phone calls were from kids and teenagers who couldn’t even vote and they were either threatening suicide or they were threatening to murder the member of congress,” said Michael Sobilik, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council.
TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, spent $7 million on lobbying and ads opposing a ban and has recruited the efforts of ex-Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway.
The company has filed a federal lawsuit to block the imposed ban or option to sell the app to the U.S., arguing the law is unconstitutional. Additionally, TikTok argues that it will damage small businesses and profits, commissioning a study by Oxford Economics that found the app contributed more than $24 billion to the U.S economy in 2023.
