TikTok’s CEO to appear before congress in March about its possible effects on US national security

On March 23, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will testify before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to address concerns over its potential risk to US national security. This was confirmed yesterday at a press release, the committee noting that Chew will face questions from the lawmakers in the following areas;

1. TikTok’s consumer privacy and data security practices, and
2. The actions the company is taking to keep kids safe from online and offline harms, and

This is not the first time the company is appearing before a congressional committee. In Spetember last year, TikTok’s COO Vanessa Pappas was asked about a BuzzFeed News story that TikTok user data had been repeatedly accessed by employees based in China.

Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in the release that “ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data.”

She noted that the American people have a right to know how these changes will affect their right to privacy and data security, and what measures TikTok is taking to protect our children from online and offline threats.

“We’ve made our concerns clear with TikTok. It is now time to continue the committee’s efforts to hold Big Tech accountable by bringing TikTok before the committee to provide complete and honest answers for people.”

Since 2016, US officials have been concerned about TikTok’s security and its relationship with Chinese authorities. CNBC reports, however, that talks between the United States and TikTok appear to have stalled because of officials’ continued worries that China may compel it to hand over user data.

The company has made moves to allay the fears of government watchdogs and representatives by moving user data from its own US and Singaporei servers to those of Oracle. Oracle has been investigating possible Chinese influence in TikTok by analysing the platform’s algorithms and content moderation models.

After discovering that four employees, two from China and two from the United States, accessed the data of multiple journalists, TikTok announced their dismissal last month. A New York Times post suggested they were investigating who was leaking information to the media.

Legislators also approved a massive spending bill in December. The law forbids the use of TikTok on any device owned by the federal government. Fifty-seven percent of states have laws prohibiting the use of local government devices. At the same time, senators and representatives have revived their efforts to outright ban TikTok in the United States.

That Chew will be testifying on Data Privacy Day is timely news. TikTok detailed its plans to protect user privacy in a blog post, including the launch of a data centre in Dublin for the storage of information from the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area.