Lawmakers Urge FTC to Investigate TikTok’s Push for Minors to Lobby Congress

House China panel leaders are concerned that TikTok ‘appears to have the unfettered ability to manipulate the American public, including America’s children.’

The logo of social media application TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on an American flag background in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 3, 2020. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

The House China panel has asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether TikTok violated laws by pushing its users under the age of 13 to lobby Congress against a bill that would force the company’s sale from its Chinese parent.

In a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan on May 2, bipartisan leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party write that TikTok forced its users to call Congress to lobby on its behalf.