WASHINGTON — Jen Shaffer, whose genealogy business took off after she used TikTok to market her services, is among millions of Americans concerned about the future of the popular social media platform as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on legislation that could ban the app.
Shaffer, who lives in New Brighton, traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to try to persuade Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith to vote against the bill that would require TikTok, owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, to change its ownership within a year.
If not, mobile app stores and web-hosting providers would be prohibited from offering the TikTok app to users in the United States, effectively banning it nationwide.
Shaffer, 45, said TikTok allowed her to work at her “dream job” and is frustrated by the effort to target ByteDance.
“I feel like I’m not being listened to,” Shaffer said. She wants lawmakers to know TikTok is “not just for young people and dance videos,” but used by businesses like the one she started, which she called The Formidable Genealogist.
The TikTok legislation was approved by the U.S. House on Saturday as part of a bill that would authorize new penalties against Russia and Iran. It was the second time the U.S. House passed a bill that threatened to ban the video app.
The legislation was a result of concerns that the social media platform is collecting information that could be used against the United States by China’s communist government.
“TikTok is a (Chinese Communist Party) spy app. Plain and simple,” Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, posted on X.
Emmer was joined by all other GOP members of Congress and Reps. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and Betty McCollum, D-4th District, in supporting the TikTok bill when it was first voted upon in the House. But Reps. Dean Phillips, D-3rd District, and Ilhan Omar, D-5th District, voted against the legislation.
For months it wasn’t clear that the U.S. Senate would ever take up the issue. But now the TikTok legislation will be part of a much larger $95 billion foreign aid bill in the U.S. Senate. That means it will be very difficult for senators — especially those who have been pushing for more U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel — to vote against it.
Smith will support the package, which is scheduled to come up for a vote this week.
“I’m especially glad that it includes major priorities I support, including critical military aid to our ally Ukraine as they fight against Russia’s brutal invasion, and billions in humanitarian aid to people in Gaza and around the globe in desperate need,” Smith said in an emailed statement.
Klobuchar also plans to vote for the package.
“Senator Klobuchar has been working alongside her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to secure more funding for Ukraine,” her office said in an email. “Minnesota is home to a large Ukrainian American community, and this funding makes clear America stands with Ukraine as they fight against Vladimir Putin’s tyranny.”
In the last Congress, Klobuchar wrote to TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi, demanding information about the company’s algorithms that the senator said promote “content glorifying eating disorders to users, particularly teenage girls.”
A sophisticated algorithm
Since President Biden will sign the legislation into law, Shaffer and other business owners who have discovered that TikTok’s algorithms are a great marketing tool are uncertain about the future health of their companies.
As part of TikTok’s massive lobbying campaign, the video app hired Oxford Economics to study the impact of its platform.
Oxford Economics determined there were 72,000 business owners like Shaffer in Minnesota that used TikTok on a regular basis and about 1.9 million individuals in the state who use the app.
Shaffer began her business as a part-time pursuit in 2017 after the birth of her daughter prompted her to take leave from a full-time human resources job. She said she had tried other means to promote her new business, including Facebook and Instagram and paid advertisements. But her company struggled.
“They weren’t targeting the right audience,” she said of the other social media platforms.
But TikTok’s more sophisticated algorithms reached the right type of people who might be interested in her services. TikTok analyzes thousands of signals — things like likes, comments, follows and how long a person spends on a particular video — to determine what videos appear on their ‘For You’ page.
That information-collecting prowess is what has sparked national security fears in Washington D.C.
With TikTok, Shaffer’s business took off. She said that last year she made twice her former salary as a full-time human resources officer and that so far this year she is earning five times what she made last year.
She said she has customers from across the United States and Canada, a six-month waiting list and plans to expand her business and hire staff — if her success continues.
Minnesota lawmakers split on Ukraine, Israel aid
Other provisions in the foreign aid package the U.S. Senate will take up this week are $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other war-torn zones and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
All four bills were approved by the U.S. House on Saturday on a bipartisan basis.
Emmer and all of Minnesota’s Democratic House members voted for more U.S. aid for Ukraine, but Reps. Brad Finstad, R-1st District, Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District, and Peter Stauber, R-8th District, continued their opposition to additional military aid to Kiev, which had been stalled for months.
“While I wholeheartedly support Ukraine in their fight against Russia, I voted against providing another round of funding for Ukraine,” Stauber said in a statement. “The United States has already provided over $100 billion in funding for this war, and we should not continue to assume the primary fiscal responsibility.”
Stauber also said there had been “insufficient transparency” surrounding the funding and equipment the United States has already sent to Ukraine and that “European countries have failed to take on their fair share of the funding for this war.”
Meanwhile, Omar was the only Minnesota lawmaker to vote against the bill that would provide Israel with an additional $26 billion, which was approved overwhelmingly on a 366-58 vote.
“I do not support unconditional military aid that further escalates the already horrific humanitarian situation,” Omar said in a statement. “It’s unconscionable to provide a blank check to the Israeli military while the genocide of Palestinians continue.”
Omar also said she would keep pressing for a permanent ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, but also said “the continued escalation of violence and civilian casualties, including many children, is unacceptable.”
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
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