On the same day its CEO appeared before Congress for the first time, social video company TikTok hired a new lobbyist in D.C. who formerly worked for President Joe Biden.
Ankit Desai, the new TikTok lobbyist, was a legislative correspondent for Biden for 10 months in 2005 while he was a U.S. senator, as Sludge previously reported. Since January 2021, Desai has been a managing member at lobbying firm ABI Associates.
TikTok hired Desai to lobby in D.C. on “Issues related to internet technology, regulation of content platforms,” according to a disclosure filed with the Senate.
The video platform company is under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers who say they are concerned about its data surveillance practices as well as national security concerns stemming from the fact that it is owned by a Chinese company. In December 2022, President Biden signed into law legislation from Sen. John Hawley (R-Mo.) that bans TikTok from being installed on federal devices. Earlier this month, the White House called on TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to sell the app in order to avoid it being banned in the U.S. by Congress, a ramping up of its pressure which had previously focused on getting the company to sign a security deal with the U.S.
Desai is just one of the people in the Biden orbit who TikTok has recently hired. Public relations firm SKDK was also recently employed by the company according to reports. SKDK is very closely tied to the Biden administration, with many of its former employees having shifted to working in the administration in recent years. Most notable among these individuals is Anita Dunn, a founder and former partner at the firm, who is a senior advisor to Biden.
In addition to TikTok, Desai this week signed a number of new lobbying clients, including landfill technology company River Birch, military engineering firm Global Technical Systems, and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation of Native Americans, which has been urging the administration to expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Northern California to protect a tract of sacred land known as Molok Luyuk.
Desai previously worked as senior advisor to the CEO of liquid natural gas company Tellurian and for more than four years as vice president of natural gas company Cheniere Energy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Several Biden advisers have worked at Cheniere, including his climate adviser when launching his presidential campaign, Heather Zichal, a former board member. During the first year of the Biden administration, the Indian conglomerate and oil refiner Reliance Industries tapped Desai to lobby on relaxing sanctions on companies receiving Venezeulan crude oil.
