TikTok developed an internal strategy for using content on its platform to win favor from Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and other politicians, according to recently revealed portions of a lawsuit against the tech giant.
The idea was part of an internal company document that, according to the complaint filed by the Kentucky attorney general, “seeks to identify TikTok accounts that might persuade each politician - along with his or her staff - as to the value of the Platform.”
TikTok videos by Kentucky businesses including a hot dog shop, a record store and a bait and ammunition store were proposed as possibly appealing to the senator, according to the suit.
The lawsuit doesn't allege the plan to influence McConnell is illegal or that it was carried out. But it offers a glimpse into the embattled tech company’s efforts to win over lawmakers who are skeptical of TikTok’s connection to China and its effects on teenagers’ mental health.
The plans were within sections of the lawsuit that were redacted. But Kentucky Public Radio discovered they could be uncovered by copy-pasting those sections and reported on them with NPR last week. After the Kentucky Public Radio first reported the story, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman successfully asked the court to seal the entire complaint from public view.
Kentucky was acting along with 12 other states and the District of Columbia in suing TikTok last week after a two-and-a-half year investigation. They allege the platform is designed to addict kids and the company deceived the public about the potential risks it poses.
In a statement, Tiktok spokesperson Alex Haurek said the company has “robust safeguards” to protect children. “Unfortunately, this complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety,” Haurek said.
Asked about the section on McConnell, Haurek said in a statement that working with politicians is standard practice at many companies. "Like most major companies, we work to educate a wide range of policymakers on the benefits of our platform, including how 7 million small businesses nationwide use TikTok to reach new customers, grow, and create jobs,” he said.
McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Kentucky Public Radio contacted one of the business creators named in the suit as being of possible interest to McConnell. Emilie Berry is the owner of Porgie’s Chow Wagon, about an hour and a half drive from Louisville (although in the suit it was called Porgie’s Hot Dog and Soda Shoppe). Berry said she was involved in a 2022 TikTok marketing campaign to promote small businesses, but was unaware of any connection to political motivations.
“I think it's so funny, because there's probably not a politician that I like less,” Berry said. “They promoted us; we didn't pay them anything. They gave us a billboard. They put us out in advertisements. It was supposed to [be about] how Tiktok can help small businesses. And at the time, I mean, it was helping us.”
Berry said that TikTok is no longer driving as much business for them, and she now personally tries to stay off the platform and other social media apps.
“I don’t think it’s about TikTok specifically,” Berry said. “I feel like that [short video] format is the thing that can feel really addictive, can get you into that time suck, can impact our attention spans.”
According to the lawsuit, other small businesses on the platform that TikTok staff thought might interest McConnell were an ammunition and bait store in northern Kentucky, a rural internet company in central Kentucky and a record store in Louisville that closed at the end of 2022. The information on the businesses appeared dated to a couple years ago.
An internal document discussed how to soothe politicians' fears about “China data/algo concerns” and “to combat minor harm + addiction concerns,” according to the suit.
As leader of Senate Republicans, McConnell backed legislation that forces TikTok to separate from its Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, or be banned in the U.S. TikTok is still fighting the law in court, saying it violates free speech protections.
Lawmakers fear TikTok's corporate ownership in China makes the app susceptible to Chinese government influence. The worry is that the app could spread pro-China narratives or share Americans' data with government officials. TikTok has said those fears are unfounded and emphasized that the company has a strict firewall between its U.S. operation and the Chinese government.
But McConnell has backed the law that could force a sale. “Requiring the divestment of Beijing-influenced entities from TikTok would land squarely within established Constitutional precedent,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech in April, “And it would begin to turn back the tide of an enormous threat to America’s children and to our nation’s prospects in the defining competition of the 21st century.”
Beyond the company’s interest in McConnell, the lawsuit says TikTok considered Kentucky a “[t]op market” and that users there were categorized as “Country Rural,” with interests in, among other specific terms, “baseball,” “Walmart,” “boat,” and “beer.”
NPR technology correspondent Bobby Allyn contributed to this story.
Sylvia Goodman is Kentucky Public Radio’s Capitol reporter.
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