Gerry Palmers Tech 09.15.2022 04:Sep AM EDT

U.S. Lawmakers Grill Top TikTok Exec Over Alleged Handover of U.S. User Data to China

A top TikTok executive was grilled by U.S. lawmakers Wednesday on allegations that the short video sharing app may leak data of its users in the United States to the Chinese government.

This marked the first time a top executive of the China-originated viral video platform had appeared before U.S. Congress, together with fellow executives from Meta, Twitter, and YouTube who attended a hearing of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee focusing on how each tech company's services would affect U.S. national security issues.

TikTok Exec Questioned Repeatedly on Providing U.S. User Data to Beijing

TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas was repeatedly questioned by U.S. senators if the company could yield to Beijing in providing data about U.S. users or deleting content at the Chinese government's request.

TikTok's parent firm, ByteDance, was incorporated and based in China.

Several U.S. lawmakers and regulators have raised concerns that ByteDance would be compelled to hand over data of TikTok's American users (who are mostly youngsters) or use the platform for Beijing's propaganda efforts.

Poppas, who is a former YouTube executive, insisted that TikTok would not yield to any demands or requests, if any from Beijing, for any information about its users. Pappas emphasized that TikTok has never shared or transferred data to the Chinese Communist Party. She noted that TikTok is not headquartered in China since it does not have any headquarters at all.

While admitting that TikTok has "employees based in China," Pappas added the company also has "very strict access controls around the type of data that they can access and where that data is stored." Data on U.S. users, she said, is stored securely in the United States. Pappas pointed out that "under no circumstances would we give that data to China."

How Criticism of TikTok Began

The criticism of TikTok, which has been one of the most popular apps in the world, went on overdrive this summer after BuzzFeed News reported in an exclusive earlier this year that TikTok's American data was still accessible in China. In response to this expose, a number of lawmakers and regulators sought answers from TikTok and its chief executive, Shou Zi Chew. Some also asked Google and Apple to prohibit downloads of the TikTok app from their digital storefronts, Play Store and App Store. They also called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company. Some lawmakers have questioned whether TikTok was truthful in its previous statements before U.S. Congress.

At the hearing, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio said he was "highly concerned about TikTok and how China may be leveraging their influence to access the platform's data on Americans."

The app's popularity has grown considerably in recent months. Over a billion people now use TikTok, all patronizing the platform's feed of seemingly unlimited roll of videos that covers such content as makeup tutorials, movie clips, lip-syncing pop songs, and political rants. The app's reach has provided its influence over pop culture, making songs, books, and even movies viral hits.

Amidst the growing U.S. government scrutiny, ByteDance has formed a lobbying operation that responds to the criticism. The company allotted around $5.1 million on federal lobbying in 2021, according to OpenSecrets, a political fund-tracking research group, in a New York Times report. With its lobbying push, ByteDance sent congressional staff positive news articles about TikTok, and made an aggressive pushback on recent media reports.

As a result of this pushback, the committee also questioned Meta chief privacy officer (CPO) Chris Cox, YouTube CPO Neal Mohan, and Twitter Head of Product and Interim Head of Revenue Jay Sullivan on issues concerning purported extremists on their platforms.