Why TikTok wants you to call your representatives

When you open TikTok today, you might be faced with a pop-up message during your scroll.

"Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok," the pop-up reads. "Speak up now — before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience. Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO."

The only button on the screen is "Call Now," so if a user doesn't want to do that, they have to quit the application and reopen it to keep scrolling. When users click "Call Now," a prompt asks users to enter their zip code to find local representatives in their area. Once you do that, the app gives the user their local representative's phone number and encourages them to call and "tell them to stop a TikTok shutdown."

TikTok didn't give a script or say exactly which legislation the company is referring to, but it's likely the new bill introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday that would potentially ban all Chinese apps based in China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran from U.S. app stores, which includes TikTok.

"This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users," Rep. Mike Gallagher, a republican, said in a press release earlier this week. "America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance."

Gallagher introduced the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act alongside Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who said that "TikTok poses critical threats to our national security."

"Our bipartisan legislation would protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps to ensure that Americans are protected from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them," Krishnamoorthi said in a press release. "Whether it’s Russia or the CCP, this bill ensures the President has the tools he needs to press dangerous apps to divest and defend Americans’ security and privacy against our adversaries."

If the proposed ban is passed, U.S. app stores could face fines of up to $5,000 per user on apps that are "controlled by a foreign adversary." In response, the ACLU warned that this bill could be a violation of the First Amendment.

"We’re deeply disappointed that our leaders are once again attempting to trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points during an election year. Just because the bill sponsors claim that banning TikTok isn’t about suppressing speech, there’s no denying that it would do just that. We strongly urge legislators to vote no on this unconstitutional bill," ACLU senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff wrote.

From potential statewide bans to executive orders intended to ban the apps, this kind of legislation — and generally confrontational vibes from lawmakers — isn't new to TikTok.