Two U.S. Senators accuse TikTok of mendacity to Congress and demand solutions

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Again in March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew spoke to members of the Home Power and Commerce Committee concerning the alleged storage of U.S TikTok. customers’ private information by the app’s mother or father firm ByteDance. Final week, a letter written to the CEO by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, accused TikTok officers of giving deceptive and inaccurate solutions to Congress and demanded the solutions to a dozen questions earlier than the top of this coming week.
Within the letter dated June sixth, the lawmakers cite printed materials from The New York Occasions that claims that person information from American TikTok customers, together with driver’s licenses and little one sexual abuse supplies, was shared at TikTok and its mother or father firm ByteDance by way of an inside messaging platform named Lark.

The Senators accuse TikTok staff of giving them “deceptive or inaccurate responses”

The Senators say of their letter, “We’re disturbed by TikTok’s sample of deceptive or inaccurate responses concerning critical issues associated to customers’ security and nationwide safety, and request that TikTok right and clarify its earlier, incorrect claims.” The Occasions report says, “[the] profusion of person information on Lark alarmed some TikTok staff, particularly since
ByteDance employees in China and elsewhere might simply see the fabric.” The report additionally famous that information from the Lark platform was stored on China-based servers.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, one of the two Senators who wrote to TikTok's CEO demanding answers - Two U.S. Senators accuse TikTok of lying to Congress and demand answers

Senator Richard Blumenthal, one of many two Senators who wrote to TikTok’s CEO demanding solutions

A narrative in Forbes printed final month was talked about within the letter written by the 2 Senators. That article accuses TikTok of storing the monetary info of U.S. TikTok creators, together with tax info and social safety numbers, in China.

Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn level out that they’ve been informed quite a few instances by TikTok staff and by its CEO that TikTok shops U.S. person information in Virginia and Singapore. Speaking to CEO Chew, the pair write, “Nowhere in your response did you point out that TikTok shops person information in China, or that details about U.S. customers— together with delicate info like photographs and driver’s licenses or stories containing unlawful supplies like little one sexual abuse supplies — can be shared on Lark, and due to this fact accessible to ByteDance staff.”

The Senators demand responses to those questions by June sixteenth

The letter contains 14 questions that the Senators need TikTok to reply by subsequent Friday, June sixteenth:

Beneath what circumstances does TikTok at the moment retailer info or private information about American customers on servers positioned in China, or permit staff which can be based mostly in China
or related to ByteDance to entry that information?

On the time that Mr. Beckerman testified in October 2021 that “U.S. person information is saved in america,” what American information was saved by, or accessible to, China or
ByteDance?

Is there something from Mr. Beckerman’s testimony in October 2021 or your testimony in March 2023 that TikTok believes deserves correction?

Why did you and Mr. Beckerman beforehand testify that TikTok doesn’t retailer person information in China when Forbes and New York Occasions stories have clearly discovered in any other case?

Did TikTok notify CFIUS that it continued to retailer U.S. person information on servers in China, and in that case, when?

For the way lengthy has the person information associated to the TikTok Creator Fund referenced within the Forbes report been saved in China and why did TikTok retailer that information in China?

Element the scope of the U.S. person info saved on servers in China associated to the TikTok Creator Fund or every other packages. The Forbes report references “delicate
monetary info, together with social safety numbers and tax IDs.”

In line with the New York Occasions report, U.S. TikTok person information shared on Lark was saved on servers in China as not too long ago as late 2022. For the way lengthy was that person information being saved
in China and is any Lark information from U.S. customers nonetheless saved or retained on servers in China?

China’s Nationwide Intelligence Regulation requires organizations and residents to “assist, help and cooperate with the state intelligence work.” Can ByteDance or TikTok be compelled
to share U.S. person information saved in China to Beijing?

Has TikTok taken any steps to research whether or not information associated to the TikTok Creator Fund or every other U.S. person information saved in China or accessible to ByteDance staff
was shared with officers of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering or the Chinese language authorities?

Has TikTok and/or ByteDance deleted the U.S. person information referenced within the New York Occasions and Forbes stories from its servers in China? Do you propose to keep up these as
backup to the cloud infrastructure, as effectively?

Are TikTok staff nonetheless utilizing Lark for inside messaging and administration features? Is ByteDance nonetheless concerned within the improvement and upkeep of this information
sharing device?

The New York Occasions report talked about the sharing between staff on Lark of sexually explicitly photos of kids as younger as 3 years outdated. We beforehand wrote to
TikTok to ask a collection of questions on how the corporate handles the moderation of such content material. What protocols do you utilize to make sure the suitable dealing with and
reporting of those illegal supplies?

What oversight, involvement, or function does TikTok have with different merchandise provided by ByteDance to customers in america, similar to Lemon8 or CapCut?

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