Amazon Questioned by Congress Over Growing TikTok Relationship

Representatives from Amazon were called to Capitol Hill for a closed-door meeting with a key House committee earlier this fall to answer questions about the retail giant’s deepening relationship with the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.

The House Select Committee on China summoned Amazon in September to discuss with staffers a high-profile shopping partnership the two companies announced in August, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The meeting has not been previously reported.

The Committee, which seeks to address perceived threats posed by China’s government, was concerned that a leading American company central to the economy had partnered with a Chinese-owned company on the verge of being banned over national security concerns.

“The Select Committee conveyed to Amazon that it is dangerous and unwise for Amazon to partner with TikTok given the grave national security threat the app poses,” a spokesperson for the Select Committee on China told Bloomberg.

An Amazon spokesperson said via email, “Like many other US companies, we maintain open lines of communication with officials across all levels of government to discuss issues that are of interest to policymakers, our employees, and our customers.” TikTok didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The meeting took place a month after Amazon and TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd., unveiled their collaboration allowing TikTok users to buy products on Amazon without ever leaving the viral video app. Users can make Amazon purchases directly through ads they see in their TikTok feeds, and link their Amazon and TikTok accounts to expedite the process. The accounts then remain synced for future purchases.

The team-up has helped Amazon tap into TikTok’s enormous Gen-Z user base and success with in-app shopping on social media. TikTok, meanwhile, has benefitted from Amazon’s credibility and has also used the relationship to more deeply embed itself in the US just months before a possible ban. A law signed by President Joe Biden in April will effectively shut down the platform nationwide early next year unless ByteDance agrees to sell the service by Jan. 19.

Amazon had long been one of TikTok’s top advertisers in the US, but some industry insiders saw the recent partnership as a calculated move to make it harder for the US to ban TikTok. Amazon has similar deals with other social media companies, including Meta Platforms Inc. and Pinterest Inc. At the same time, another arm of its business — Amazon Web Services — has contracts with the Department of Defense, National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency.

If ByteDance stands by its refusal to spin off its US TikTok business, it would force the US to carry out its first-ever ban of a foreign-owned social media app. Lawmakers and congressional staff who helped spearhead the divest-or-ban legislation were troubled that Amazon decided to link arms with TikTok given the looming shutdown.

Amazon is not the only major American institution to kick off a new project or sign a contract with TikTok since Biden signed the law. The NFL announced a multi-year extension of its existing TikTok video partnership back in September, and billionaire Ted Leonsis’s Monumental Sports & Entertainment signed a branding deal with TikTok to put the app’s logo on jerseys for the NHL’s Washington Capitals, among other things.

Music distribution platform UnitedMasters entered a new multi-year agreement with TikTok in October, and earlier this week, social shopping tool LTK announced a fresh TikTok deal enabling creators to include LTK links in their TikTok videos.

The flurry of new partnerships suggests that at least some US companies are betting the TikTok ban is unlikely to go through. President-elect Donald Trump has said he opposes a TikTok ban, and it’s possible that he may work to prevent it from happening.

By Alexandra S. Levine