A majority of Black voters oppose legislation banning TikTok, according to new polling obtained by The Hill.
The poll was conducted by ClearPath Strategies and found 51% of Black voters oppose the ban and 55% of Black voters view TikTok favorably. The Hill obtained the polling through an internal ClearPath Strategies memo.
On Saturday, Congress passed bipartisan legislation, 360-58, that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance nine months to divest its U.S. operations or be banned. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law if passed by the Senate.
TikTok, which says it has not and would not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, has argued that a ban would trample on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for the 170 million users of its app in the country.
The company told employees over the weekend that as soon as Biden signs the legislation "we will move to the courts for a legal challenge. We'll continue to fight, as this legislation is a clear violation of the First Amendment," according to an email obtained by Reuters.
Twenty-four percent of Black voters said they would be less likely to vote for an elected official who supported a TikTok ban, and 77% said they’d prefer Congress pass a law requiring social media companies abide by regulations and standards around protecting user data, The Hill reported.
Overall, 38% of registered voters use TikTok at least once a month, including 51% of Black voters, 57% of Latino voters, and 42% of voters who identify as liberal, according to The Hill. The poll found 39% of Biden supporters regularly use TikTok, including 68% of voters ages 18-29, The Hill said.
The poll was conducted from April 8-10 with 1,025 registered voters.
Reuters contributed to this report.