Shou Zi Chew, chief government officer of TikTok Inc., speaks in the course of 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 mother or father firm of Bloomberg News. Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify earlier than a House panel on March 23 in regards to the app’s safety and privateness practices and its ties to China by means of mother or father firm ByteDance.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced the listening to on Monday, saying it might be Chew’s first look earlier than 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 an announcement. “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.”
A TikTok spokesperson stated in an announcement 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 you can safe its app within the nation have continued to tug on. TikTok has been partaking with the Committee on Foreign Investment within the U.S., which might decide if sure danger mitigation measures are sufficient to dampen nationwide safety considerations.
Still, these negotiations have reportedly been delayed at the least as of final month, as officers proceed to fret in regards to the implications of the app’s possession by Chinese mother or father firm ByteDance. That’s as a result of Chinese-based firms could be compelled handy over information 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. person information in China to mitigate that danger, however that is finished little to assuage fears.
Fears over TikTok’s nationwide safety and privateness implications for shoppers 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 safety fears. A TikTok spokesperson known as the passage of the invoice “a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests,” in an announcement 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.”
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
WATCH: Lawmakers grill TikTok, YouTube, Snap executives
Source: www.cnbc.com”