Former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has begun lobbying for the continued operation of the Chinese Communist Party’s data-mining TikTok app which propagandizes communism and cultural Marxism to Americans, as well as spying on them for Beijing’s interests. The stunning revelation emerged following a series of discussions with the formerly Ron DeSantis-linked Club for Growth, which in turn is linked to TikTok investor and libertarian billionaire Jeff Yass.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which in turn is owned in part by the Chinese Communist Party. Instead of supporting a ban of the foreign intelligence tool, Conway is claiming regulatory ‘guardrails’ would be better, peddling the pro-CCP line to Congress members.
Conway’s lobbying coincides with former President Trump’s softened stance toward the app. The 45th President recently expressed reservations about inadvertently benefitting other social media giants like Facebook by eliminating a key competitor and parroting the Yass line, which some have suggested is down to campaign funding pledges.
Despite the pushback, lawmakers are pressing forward, with a unanimous vote cast by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to enforce a divestment in the app by ByteDance within six months or face removal from the U.S. app stores.
