Shou Zi Chew, chief government officer of TikTok Inc., speaks throughout the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the guardian firm of Bloomberg News. Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg through Getty Images
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before a House panel on March 23 about the app’s security and privateness practices and its ties to China by means of guardian firm ByteDance.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced the hearing on Monday, saying it might be Chew’s first look before a congressional panel.
“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,” E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., stated in a press release. “Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms.”Â
A TikTok spokesperson stated in a press release that they “welcome the opportunity to set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.”
But, the spokesperson added, “There is no truth to Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ claim that TikTok has made U.S. user data available to the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party has neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok. Moreover, under the proposal we have devised with our country’s top national security agencies through CFIUS, that kind of data sharing—or any other form of foreign influence over the TikTok platform in the United States—would not be possible.”
The spokesperson stated they hoped by sharing particulars of its plans with the committee, “Congress can take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand.”
The announcement comes as the corporate’s negotiations with the U.S. authorities over how to safe its app within the nation have continued to drag on. TikTok has been partaking with the Committee on Foreign Investment within the U.S., which might decide if sure danger mitigation measures are satisfactory to dampen nationwide security considerations.
Still, these negotiations have reportedly been delayed at the very least as of final month, as officers proceed to fear about the implications of the app’s possession by Chinese guardian firm ByteDance. That’s as a result of Chinese-based firms will be compelled to hand over data to the federal government there on request. In the previous, TikTok has assured U.S. officers and lawmakers that it doesn’t retailer U.S. consumer knowledge in China to mitigate that danger, however that’s done little to assuage fears.
Fears over TikTok’s nationwide security and privateness implications for customers have spanned each side of Congress and stretched from the Trump administration into the Biden administration.
Lawmakers handed a ban on TikTok on authorities units in a year-end legislative package deal, citing security fears. A TikTok spokesperson referred to as the passage of the invoice “a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests,” in a press release on the time, including that the settlement CFIUS was reviewing would “meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state level.”
