ByteDance flies over 30 TikTok stars first-class to Washington to lobby for platform

Ms Ebony Nunez and Ms Denise Nunez, lesbian moms who run a family TikTok account featuring their three children, said they hoped the proposed TikTok ban would not go through. “You’d be taking our family away,” Ebony said. They added that they had left prior careers to focus solely on making content for the app.

Other creators also spoke in favour of TikTok, including several teachers who talked about the importance of the platform to education, and Ms Tiffany Yu, who emphasised how it had supercharged her reach as an advocate for disabled people.

Elsewhere on the rooftop, Ms Naomi Hearts, a 25-year-old creator known for her comedy and fashion content, filmed another video. “I had to fulfill my Elle Woods fantasy,” she said, referring to the heroine of “Legally Blonde 2,” who moves to Washington to pursue a ban on animal testing in cosmetics.

From there, group members took Ubers to the Capitol. The building is regularly filled with people walking with phones glued to their hands, but the group of TikTokers, many of them laughing and filming as they strolled the corridors, offered a palpably different energy.

Ms Hearts and a few others met with staff members from the office of Representative Judy Chu of California. “We talked about how TikTok impacts the community and the U.S. in the positive way,” Ms Hearts said after the meeting. She added that she thought that Ms Chu’s staff was “perceptive,” but “didn’t give us much insight.” Still, she said, she was glad to speak her piece.

The group went to two more meetings, the first with Representative Linda Sanchez of California, the second with staff members from the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Afterward, Ms Hearts, only half joking, asked the TikTok representatives if her hotel had a spa and would the company possibly spring for a facial?

When asked if she would be among the TikTok creators who would attend the hearing scheduled for Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one creator said, “What hearing?” It was genuinely hard to tell if she was kidding. Only a few creators from the group ended up going to the event in person.