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

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew advised U.S. lawmakers that China-based workers at its mother or father firm ByteDance should still have entry to some U.S. knowledge from the app however added that will not be the case as soon as its danger mitigation plan, referred to as Mission Texas, is full.

The change is important as a result of it will get on the crux of U.S. officers’ fears about TikTok’s possession and likewise reveals how tough and time-consuming untangling the app from its Chinese language mother or father firm might be.

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Lawmakers and intelligence officers worry that U.S. consumer knowledge might get into the fingers of the Chinese language authorities through ByteDance. That is as a result of Chinese language legislation permits the federal government to acquire inside data from corporations based mostly there for purported nationwide safety functions, as CNBC has reported.

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

“After Mission Texas is finished, the reply is not any,” Chew mentioned. “Right this moment, there may be nonetheless some knowledge 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. knowledge with the Chinese language Communist Social gathering, saying that TikTok is a “personal enterprise” that, like many others, depends on a “world workforce.”

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

The spokesperson added on the time that “Since October of 2022, all new U.S. consumer knowledge has been saved solely within the Oracle Cloud Surroundings, with protected knowledge totally out of attain of any overseas authorities. That knowledge is managed solely by U.S. Information Safety—a TikTok subsidiary made up of Individuals, led and positioned in America—whose sole focus is to guard U.S. nationwide safety pursuits by securing U.S. consumer knowledge and stopping exterior manipulation of our techniques.”

TikTok mentioned Thursday that Mission Texas is already in motion however there are numerous steps to achieve its completion. That features deleting knowledge from TikTok’s servers in Singapore and Virginia, a course of it started final week. The information on these servers is the type that might theoretically nonetheless be accessed by China-based ByteDance workers in the interim.

As soon as that knowledge is deleted, based on TikTok, these workers will now not have entry to U.S. consumer knowledge from the app.

— CNBC’s Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.

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