TikTok developed an internal strategy to use its platform to influence Sen. Mitch McConnell, one of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Washington, according to recently revealed portions of a lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok identified small business accounts the company hoped would be of interest to McConnell, including a hot dog shop in western Kentucky and a now-closed record store in Louisville, in an apparent attempt to curry favor with the lawmaker.
It was part of a plan “to sway politicians who might otherwise enact legislation harmful” to TikTok, according to poorly-redacted portions of the Kentucky attorney general’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which alleges the platform can be addictive and cause harm to children, doesn't say the plan to influence McConnell is illegal, but it offers a glimpse into the embattled tech company used by more than half of America. Though it’s unclear if other lawmakers were targeted, the cited documents appear to demonstrate how TikTok crafts its image with politicians as the company faces public criticism and a possible nationwide ban.
According to the lawsuit, an internal study found that more than two-thirds of Gen Zers and millennials in Kentucky use TikTok.
It’s one of many revelations from the roughly 30 pages of faulty redactions in the Kentucky lawsuit against TikTok. Kentucky Public Radio revealed the information by copy-and-pasting excerpts of the redacted material. A state judge has now sealed the entire complaint at the request of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman.
TikTok spokesperson Alex 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,” Haurek said.
More than a dozen states, including Kentucky, sued TikTok last week — the culmination of a 2.5 year investigation — alleging its platform is designed to addict kids, and that the company deceived the public about the risks. Internal documents quoted in the lawsuit appear to show, for example, that a tool TikTok touted as a way to help young people limit their use of the app was “useful in a good talking point” with policymakers, but “not altogether effective.” An internal TikTok investigation cited in the lawsuit also found that kids as young as 15 were stripping on the app’s live feature in exchange for digital currency.
The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok purposefully targeted their business toward Kentucky. The company identified several accounts that TikTok believed could “persuade each politician — along with his or her staff — as to the value of the platform,” according to internal documents summarized in the lawsuit.
In a previous statement, Haurek said it was “highly irresponsible of NPR” to share information from the now court-sealed information. He 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.
TikTok identified several small businesses in the state they thought might be of interest to McConnell: a hot dog shop in western Kentucky, an ammo 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, according to the Kentucky-based lawsuit. The selected businesses date the document to at least two years ago.
Emilie Berry is the owner of Porgie’s Chow Wagon, near Rough River Lake, one of the businesses that TikTok identified (although at the time 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 [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.”
McConnell’s office did not immediately return a request for comment, but 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 the move violates free speech protections.
Lawmakers, including McConnell, fear that China’s authoritarian government could exert influence over the platform, weaponizing it against Americans by spreading pro-China narratives or collecting data on its citizens. 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.
“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."
TikTok surveyed users to find out if “they would be more or less likely to vote for a Congressional candidate based upon whether that candidate supports a TikTok ban,” according to the lawsuit. It is unclear how TikTok intended to use that information.
Haurek said, “As is standard practice at other companies, we also monitor public sentiment on issues that relate to the company."
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok considered Kentucky a “[t]op market.” It cites that new users TikTok acquired in Kentucky and elsewhere, which they categorized as “Country Rural,” preferred specific content including, among other things, “baseball,” “Walmart,” “boat,” and “beer.”
Attorney General Coleman argued in the filing that the granular data analysis “was done for purposes of growing TikTok’s market share within” Kentucky.
Last week, a bipartisan pair of senators asked TikTok to turn over all the information it produced as part of the Kentucky Attorney General’s investigation before the state filed its lawsuit.
NPR Reporter Bobby Allyn contributed to this report.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
