State lawmakers weigh TikTok’s value

[January 30, 2025]  By Bridgette Fox and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)

When shortform video platform TikTok shut down service earlier this month, the move surprised some Illinois politicians who use the app to educate, reach constituents and follow trends.

Others had abandoned the app months before it was shut down for less than 24 hours.

TikTok, a social media app owned by China-based company ByteDance, has been the center of political controversy since 2019 when a federal probe into its ownership began.

In 2022, a report from Buzzfeed News showed ByteDance employees based in China were able to access American users’ data.

In early 2024, former President Joe Biden signed the bill that would force TikTok to either sell to a U.S. company or be banned in the U.S.

TikTok’s lawyers claimed the government was infringing on its users’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech. However, in January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of upholding the law.

Of the 118 members of the Illinois House, 20 had verifiable, nonprivate TikTok accounts they used personally or as representatives as of Jan. 22. There were nine verifiable accounts found for state Senators.

Only 10 of the 20 accounts had any posts, and only seven of those accounts posted within the last three months.

Rep. Edgar Gonzalez Jr., D-Chicago, is an active TikTok user. The 28-year-old said he uses the app to educate people and keep up with local news and businesses.

“I had other colleagues say ‘Oh, I saw this restaurant in your neighborhood, how is it?’” Gonzalez said. “I can just talk about it, and I ask them about other restaurants or businesses in their districts, so it (a potential ban) sucks because a lot of people use it for discovering new things.”

Gonzalez and other representatives also worried TikTok is a national security threat.

“Data has become its own currency and its own weapon,” Gonzalez said. “But I think that in the same way that we worry about foreign countries trying to harvest that data, we should also worry about the folks in the states.”

In 2022, Buzzfeed News reported Chinese-based employees at ByteDance had accessed American users’ data. That same year, company officials admitted in leaked emails to spying on the author of that story in an attempt to identify her sources, according to Forbes.

Rep. Patrick Sheehan, R-Lemont, posted his only two videos to TikTok in January. He said he likes comedy, recipe and workout videos, and he wants to reach out to his constituents.

“My kids are on the platform, and they kept saying ‘Hey, you know, RFK Jr. is on the platform, and we see his videos everywhere. Now President (Donald) Trump’s on the platform, he’s everywhere, Joe Biden’s everywhere,” Sheehan said. “So, I got kind of interested in seeing how they were reaching out to a whole different type of audience, so I decided to get on.”

A phone sitting on an “Illinois Blue Book” shows the official profile of TikTok on its app. (Capitol News Illinois by Bridgette Fox)

Sheehan said he wasn’t concerned about using TikTok right now, despite the national security concerns.

“I’m not too worried about it, I’m very hopeful that this whole situation is going to be resolved,” Sheehan said. “I really feel like a lot of, you know, stakeholders that are at the table want to make this work – I’m just really hopeful that it’s just a matter of time and negotiating a number.”

The app was initially required to be sold by Jan. 19 by an approved buyer or be banned in the U.S. Trump extended the deadline for this enforcement by 75 days.

Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, who last posted on Jan. 15, said she’s weighing the value of using TikTok if it gets bought by a company like Meta.

“Like every bill, I would like to learn more about the transaction. What is it going to entail, who’s actually involved and being able to figure that out first,” Hernandez said. “But I don’t know. I guess that’s my recent conflict – I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do and not do on a social media platform.”

Rep. Dave Vella, D-Rockford, who last posted to TikTok in 2022, said the app’s security risks and the low reach to constituents made his campaign stop posting on it.

“I know my daughter and her friends love it, so I’d prefer that it stay open but just not owned by China,” Vella said.

While Vella said any company that isn’t based in China would make him less nervous about posting, there are worries about other companies who might buy TikTok.

“I do worry about one conglomerate of four or five people having all that information, all that control, all that ability to decide what is or is not truth or what is and is not dispensable,” Vella said.

Rep. Travis Weaver, R-Edwards, hasn’t posted to TikTok since March 2024 because of how little engagement he got there. However, he said his communications team isn’t done using the app.

Like most representatives, Weaver is watching for what happens next.

“I think it makes a lot of sense for it to be sold,” Weaver said. “I have serious concerns about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) having so much influence on what American citizens see, especially what the next generation sees.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.