According to TikTok’s letter to nine Republican senators, TikTok said that it is working with the Biden administration to “fully secure” the app in the U.S.A and quell concerns about the Chinese government accessing Americans’ data.
TikTok’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew wrote that the company was close to a final agreement. This will ensure that its data-sharing practices don’t raise national security concerns.
TikTok claims that all U.S. traffic is being routed to servers managed by Oracle in California, as opposed to TikTok’s infrastructure. He stated that TikTok plans to remove all U.S. data and rely entirely on Oracle’s storage. “With access limited to authorized personnel, pursuant the protocols being developed with U.S. Government,” Chew wrote.
Chew wrote to senators that employees of Beijing-based ByteDance can access the app’s data. Although the company had previously acknowledged that certain employees could have access to U.S. user information, this letter provided additional detail.
Chew explained that foreign employees are allowed to view a “narrow group of non-sensitive TikTok data,” which includes comments and public videos. According to Chew, none of this data is shared with Chinese officials. ByteDance employees are only allowed to view Americans’ TikTok data following approval by a U.S-based security team.
This system was put in place to stop Chinese authorities from asking for information. Although TikTok claims that Beijing has not sought American information through TikTok in the past, the possibility has put the video app under the scrutiny of Washington lawmakers.
Following a BuzzFeed report that detailed the access Chinese-based employees have had to American data, Republican senators Marsha Blackburn and Marsha Whiteburn raised concerns about TikTok.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr has recently asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok app from their stores because it poses a serious threat to national security. Carr is concerned that the Chinese Community Party may have access to sensitive personal information of Americans.
“In fact they came out and stated that some data can be accessed there. It’s on an as-needed basis. The definition of “as necessary” when it comes entities subject to the CCP is very different from what I or you would consider to be ‘as required’,” Carr stated in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition on Thursday.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is a group headed by the Treasury Department and containing top officials from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. It continues to work closely with TikTok on safeguards which satisfy U.S. authorities.
TikTok is the first social media platform to be launched from China. It has over 1 billion users worldwide. It has been a difficult ride in the U.S. despite being the largest market.
Trump’s administration waged a war against TikTok. They wanted the app to be shut down in the U.S., and it had to fully spin off from ByteDance. His administration announced a deal with Walmart and Oracle that would have allowed TikTok to move its headquarters to the U.S. However, the deal was eventually canceled.
Although the Biden White House did not follow its predecessor’s scorched earth approach, the administration continues national security negotiations to ensure that Americans’ data is protected.
The contents of the letter were not appreciated by some Republicans TikTok sent it to. Blackburn calls on TikTok leaders in Washington to give public testimony before Congress.
Blackburn stated in a statement that “TikTok’s response confirms our fears regarding CCP influence inside the company are well-founded.” They should have been transparent from the beginning, but instead they tried to hide their work in secrecy. Americans should know that Communist China knows their TikTok information.
