TikTok lobbyist on board of AOC-advised group funded by China’s ByteDance: ‘Influence peddling’
Gabe Kaminsky
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One of the top lobbyists for TikTok sits on the board of directors of a nonprofit group that has pocketed cash from the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance and is advised by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a staunch opponent of banning TikTok in the United States, records show.
Ocasio-Cortez opens herself up to a conflict of interest by railing against TikTok ban proposals while helping to advise the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, a nonprofit group that in December 2022 received $150,000 from ByteDance, watchdog groups previously told the Washington Examiner. That same charity, which used the funds to support members of its affiliated Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has a board member named Jesse Price who is TikTok’s public policy director, according to its website and most recent publicly available tax forms.
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“There appears to be a conflict of interest between AOC’s position supporting TikTok on several levels,” Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative ethics watchdog that is weighing legal action, told the Washington Examiner. “This kind of influence peddling from a Communist China company raises serious ethical questions.”
Ocasio-Cortez joined TikTok last month and posted a video in which she raised concerns over the idea of a TikTok ban, which has picked up steam as Congress weighs national and privacy security concerns over the app’s ties to China. President Joe Biden signed a $1.7 trillion spending package in December 2022 that banned the app from government devices, which has not stopped several “Squad” members, including Ocasio-Cortez, from maintaining active app accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, the Washington Examiner reported.
It’s unclear whether the Squad Democrats, which also include the likes of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), have used official devices for their TikTok posts. Several bills have been introduced to restrict TikTok in the U.S., including one by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) that would ban the app outright. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Thune (R-SD) are behind legislation that would grant further powers to the Commerce Department to examine if foreign business deals pose security risks.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, which was founded in 1978 by Hispanic members of Congress, received a $150,000 contribution on Dec. 13, 2022, from ByteDance as part of the company’s expansive lobbying blitz that year, according to federal disclosures. TikTok and ByteDance, a multibillion-dollar Chinese technology company with links to the Chinese Communist Party, have spent over $13.4 million lobbying the federal government since 2019, disclosures show.
Price was first listed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in 2019 as a board member, according to tax forms. Before joining TikTok in 2020, he lobbied on behalf of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company from 2008 and 2020, disclosures show.
Between 2020 and 2022, Price appeared in ByteDance lobbying disclosures totaling over $10.7 million. He’s made $7,750 in campaign donations during his time at TikTok, which have been to Democrats, including Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), campaign finance disclosures show.
It’s unclear when TikTok and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute first initiated a partner relationship. In 2022, TikTok helped sponsor the institute’s annual awards gala, which recognizes Latino leaders “across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors,” documents show.
TikTok received publicity on half a page in the awards gala’s program — noting it “salutes” the charity “and its mission to develop the next generation of Latino leaders.”
“We work to engage policymakers, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders across the political spectrum on issues that are important to our business and to the diverse and vibrant community on our platform,” Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, told the Washington Examiner. “As a company that champions diversity, equity, and inclusion, TikTok is strongly aligned with CHCI’s mission of developing leadership skills and public service opportunities for Latinos in the public policy space.”
One watchdog group, however, said the situation “looks like the D.C. swamp in action.”
“The TikTok lobbyist is on the board of the institute with several members of Congress, while TikTok’s parent company made a big donation,” Pete McGinnis, a spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative, told the Washington Examiner. “Now, one of the institute’s advisory board members is defending the company in Congress against bipartisan scrutiny. All this raises concerns, but sadly it seems like another example of the dysfunctional way D.C. operates.”
Still, not all institute board members are pro-TikTok.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said in mid-February that he would vote in favor of a national app ban. Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL), another board member, pressed TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew during a late-March House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing — asking if the company would be ready to divest from ByteDance and its CCP ties if the Treasury Department demanded it to do so.
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Chew pushed back on the idea of divestment, noting he does not think “ownership is the issue here.”
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not reply to requests for comment.