In light of this threat, TikTok is reassuring its advertisers everything will be alright, at the same time it's rallying in support of itself from all the high-profile users in the hope that their influence may sway an opinion, which in turn can win it a reprieve from the full US ban.

According to a new report from The Information, TikTok has been holding meetings with top advertisers in recent weeks in an effort to allay concerns about a possible ban.

As The Information reports:

"TikTok has been working to win over the ad industry, including holding a behind-closed-doors meeting in New York last month, where executives including data security manager Andy Bonillo detailed plans for addressing national security concerns in the US government."

Those meetings haven't provided much assurance, according to attendees, but the fact that TikTok is now moving to the next stage of its disaster mitigation plan underlines the seriousness of the threat, and the potential likelihood of an actual ban being put in place.

At the same time, TikTok has been rallying high-profile users, and calling on them fly to DC to lobby senators not to implement a ban.

As reported by Politico :

"Dozens of TikTok creators will descend on Washington for three days [this week], according to a person familiar with the plans, who revealed details on condition of anonymity. The creators will hold a press conference on Wednesday on Capitol Hill, the person added. Another person familiar with the plans noted that TikTok was paying for the cost of sending influencers to DC.

So expect to see a lot of content from Washington landmarks in your ‘For You’ feed this week.

It’s the latest in TikTok’s effort to stave off restrictions in the US, as the White House considers a full ban of the app on national security grounds.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, is accountable to China's cybersecurity laws, which demand that all apps share user data with the Chinese Government on request. There's nothing that suggests that TikTok has been challenged to produce such as yet, but as tensions with China ramp up, there is a concern this could be used as an avenue to gather intel on influencers in America, or political and media identities in the US, other regions, as a means of swaying opinion, and influencing policy, etc., etc.

And there's some validity to this.
, it was revealed that Bytedance had been spying on several American journalists whom it believed had been in contact with Bytedance staff, and had gained access to commercially sensitive information.

To address this, Bytedance monitored the location data on the TikTok accounts of these journalists and correlated the same with that of the employees to see if they were ever at the same place at the same time.

That's the kind of spy activity that TikTok could facilitate, and, by the same token, maybe government employees for example, can be leveraged as a tool where TikTok data can offer location info, data about their kids, their home, etc.

But on the other hand, it should make sense for government officials to eliminate this app from official devices considering the negative purpose that might arise because of it, especially on the backdrop of dissenting opinion on military conflict.

And, Should that extend to regular users also?

Next in these talks will likely be the critical stage, when the head of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, appears on Thursday before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. It's hard to imagine that the additional influence efforts by TikTok are going to change political opinions, but again, it is underlined that this threat the app now faces can move to the next, even more critical, phase later this week.