Former Disney Communications Chief Zenia Mucha Advises TikTok Amid Congressional Calls To Ban The Wildly Popular App Over Chinese Spying Concerns

Zenia Mucha, Disney’s former communications chief, is advising TikTok as the struggling company fights to shut it down in the US over security concerns, Deadline has confirmed. It’s already banned across the federal government, and President Biden recently stepped up demands that the global app’s Chinese parent sell the U.S. company to a U.S. company or make it disappear.

Mucha’s advisory role for the ailing social media platform falls under her ZM Statesgies banner. After officially leaving Disney at the end of 2021, she moved back east and the former right hand of former and current CEO Bob Iger founded the company last August.

No stranger to the sharp elbows of the political world, Mucha has been a tough advocate for GOP New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato and later Governor George Pataki before joining Iger and the House of Mouse in 2001. Whether these partisan skills will pay off against an increasingly bipartisan swing to kneecap or ban TikTik remains to be seen.

Mucha’s Disney affiliations and the punching bag the company has become in the Republican culture war, as well as its own dealings with China, could even be a hindrance to TikTok, the rumor in some GOP quarters, we hear.

The WSJ first reported on Mucha’s appearance, saying David Plouffe and Jim Messina, veterans of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, also serve as TikTok advisers. The company certainly needs a strong team, as evidenced last week by the cruel quirk of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s House Energy and Commerce Committee. Members spoke of shock and anger at the Chinese government’s alleged ability to access US user data and influence TikTok users with in-app propaganda. They also generally swear by the evils of social media.

The executive branch tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to persuade lawmakers that a solution called Project Texas, currently in place but not ready, would assuage concerns about the platform’s handling of American data. It will keep all information within the US on servers here and under the supervision of a third party. He also could not reassure her about the status of the data currently being collected. TikTok is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

The WSJ said the three counselors helped Chew before the trial.

Mucha did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Deadline today about her connection to TikTok.

It doesn’t seem to be that easy to destroy TikTok. The Trump administration also tried to force a sale of TikTok and then ban it, but lost several rounds in court before dropping the case. Two separate judges ruled against orders that would not have made the app available for new downloads in app stores in the fall of 2020.

Earlier in his tenure, Trump issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to sell the American portion of the platform to American owners. Microsoft made an offer but was turned down. Administration appeared to approve a bid led by Oracle and Walmart, but it never happened.

TikTok said that “the best way to address national security concerns is transparent, US-based protection of US user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, review and verification that we already implement.”