TikTok’s CEO will tell lawmakers that the Chinese-owned short video app, which has over 150 million American users, has never and will never share user data with the Chinese government, despite growing US national security concerns.
“TikTok has never shared or been asked to share user data from the United States with the Chinese government. TikTok would not honor such a request if it were ever made “According to written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify on Thursday.
He also stated that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is not owned or controlled by any government or state entity. “Let me state unequivocally: ByteDance is not a Chinese or any other country’s agent,” Chew will tell the committee.
TikTok’s detractors are concerned that the app’s U.S. user data will be passed on to China’s government, prompting increased calls from U.S. lawmakers to ban the app. TikTok said last week that the Biden administration demanded that its Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or face a U.S. ban.
“Bans should only be used when there are no other options. But there is an alternative “According to Chew’s testimony.
TikTok’s testimony before Congress on Thursday comes amid growing calls for the short video app to be banned across the United States, and it is one of the Chinese company’s most detailed rebuttals to the accusations leveled against it.
TikTok claims to have spent more than $1.5 billion on “rigorous data security efforts” under the guise of “Project Texas,” and has attempted to persuade lawmakers and the Biden administration to support the plan.
The powerful national security body, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), had unanimously recommended that ByteDance divest TikTok in 2020.
Under pressure from then-President Trump, ByteDance attempted unsuccessfully in late 2020 to finalize a deal with Walmart and Oracle to transfer TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity, and Trump then lost court battles to ban TikTok.
The video app has been in talks with CFIUS for more than two years, hoping to reach an agreement on protecting user data in the United States.
TikTok has established a special-purpose subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS), with nearly 1,500 full-time employees, and has contracted with Oracle (ORCL.N) to store TikTok’s U.S. user data.
“Oracle has already begun investigating TikTok’s source code.”
“They will have unprecedented access to the related algorithms and data models,” according to Chew’s testimony.
Chew stated that once the process is completed, “all protected US data will be protected by US law and under the control of the US-led security team.” There is no way for the Chinese government to gain access to it or compel access to it under this structure.”
After routing new U.S. data to the Oracle Cloud last year, the company said it began deleting U.S. user-protected data in data centers in Virginia and Singapore this month. According to Chew’s testimony, this process is expected to be completed later this year.
According to Chew’s testimony, global institutional investors such as Blackrock, General Atlantic, and others own 60% of ByteDance.
and Sequoia, approximately 20% by the company’s founders, and approximately
Employees own 20% of the company, “including thousands of Americans.”
TikTok announced on Monday that more than 150 million people in the United States use the app on a monthly basis, up from 100 million in 2020. According to Chew’s testimony, the average user today is an adult well past college age.
“While users in the United States represent 10% of our global community, their voice accounts for 25% of the total views around the world,” Chew’s testimony says.
Chew claims that current versions of the app do not collect precise or approximate GPS data from users in the United States.
