TikTok CEO says China-based ByteDance workers nonetheless have entry to some U.S. information

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew advised U.S. lawmakers that China-based workers at its mum or dad firm ByteDance should have entry to some U.S. information from the app however added that will not be the case as soon as its threat mitigation plan, referred to as Venture Texas, is full.

The change is critical as a result of it will get on the crux of U.S. officers’ fears about TikTok’s possession and likewise exhibits how tough and time-consuming untangling the app from its Chinese language mum or dad firm could be.

Lawmakers and intelligence officers worry that U.S. person information might get into the fingers of the Chinese language authorities by way of ByteDance. That is as a result of Chinese language regulation permits the federal government to acquire inside data from firms primarily based there for purported nationwide safety functions, as CNBC has reported.

Throughout Chew’s much-anticipated testimony earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee, Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, requested Chew if any ByteDance worker in China might presently entry U.S. information.

“After Venture Texas is finished, the reply is not any,” Chew stated. “Right this moment, there may be nonetheless some information that we have to delete.”

Later within the listening to, in an change with Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., Chew denied it shares U.S. information with the Chinese language Communist Social gathering, saying that TikTok is a “non-public enterprise” that, like many others, depends on a “international workforce.”

In response to a request for remark final week a couple of comment made in a Wall Avenue Journal article that TikTok represents a Chinese language espionage operation, a TikTok spokesperson stated in an announcement there was “no fact” to the allegation.

The spokesperson added on the time that “Since October of 2022, all new U.S. person information has been saved completely within the Oracle Cloud Atmosphere, with protected information totally out of attain of any overseas authorities. That information is managed completely by U.S. Knowledge Safety—a TikTok subsidiary made up of People, led and situated in America—whose sole focus is to guard U.S. nationwide safety pursuits by securing U.S. person information and stopping outdoors manipulation of our programs.”

TikTok stated Thursday that Venture Texas is already in motion however there are a lot of steps to succeed in its completion. That features deleting information from TikTok’s servers in Singapore and Virginia, a course of it started final week. The information on these servers is the sort that would theoretically nonetheless be accessed by China-based ByteDance workers in the meanwhile.

As soon as that information is deleted, in response to TikTok, these workers will not have entry to U.S. person information from the app.

— CNBC’s Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.

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