CNN Business
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TikTok repeatedly refused to pledge to US lawmakers on Wednesday that the short-form video app would cut off the flow of US users’ data to China, instead promising that the outcome of its negotiations with the US government “will satisfy all national security concerns”.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas first sparred with Senator Rob Portman over the details of TikTok’s corporate structure before being confronted — twice — with a specific request.
“Will TikTok commit to cutting off all data and data flows in China, TikTok employees based in China, ByteDance employees or any other party in China that may have the ability to access user information Americans?” Portman asked.
The question reflects bipartisan concerns in Washington about the possibility that US user data could find its way to the Chinese government and be used to undermine US interests, thanks to a national security law there that forces companies to placed there to cooperate with requests for data. US officials have expressed fears that China could use Americans’ personal information to identify potential agents or intelligence targets, or to inform future disinformation or disinformation campaigns.
TikTok does not operate in China, Pappas said, although it does have an office in China. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, whose founder is Chinese and has offices in China.
US concerns about TikTok were renewed after a BuzzFeed News report in June, based on leaked meeting audio, said ByteDance employees had access to US user data on multiple occasions. In a subsequent letter to lawmakers, TikTok acknowledged the ability of China-based individuals to access US user data, but emphasized cybersecurity controls that were “overseen by our US-based security team.”
Pappas claimed at Wednesday’s hearing that the company has said, in the document, that its Chinese employees have access to US user data. She also reiterated that TikTok has said it would “under no circumstances give that data to China” and denied that TikTok is in any way influenced by China. However, she avoided saying whether ByteDance would withhold US user data from the Chinese government or whether ByteDance could be influenced by China.
Asked by Portman on Wednesday to respond again to the BuzzFeed article, Pappas said, “those allegations were not found,” without identifying a specific allegation. Then she added: “It was spoken [in the article] of a master account, which does not exist in our company.”
The BuzzFeed article mentions a “Beijing-based engineer as a ‘Master Admin’ who has ‘access to everything,'” but it is unclear whether that engineer is an employee of ByteDance or TikTok.
“Again, we take this extremely seriously in terms of maintaining the trust with US citizens and ensuring the security of US users’ data,” Pappas said. “In terms of access and controls, we will go above and beyond in leading the initiative with our partner, Oracle, and also to the satisfaction of the US government through our work with [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States]which we hope to share more information about.”
Portman then pressed Pappas again to commit to “cutting off all data and metadata flows to China,” but Pappas simply vowed that “our final agreement with the US government will satisfy all security concerns national”.
Pappas later testified to Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley that the entire content of the BuzzFeed article was false.
“We disagree with the categorization in that article wholeheartedly,” she said.
TikTok previously said it had moved US user data to cloud servers managed by Oracle, from servers TikTok controlled in Virginia and Singapore, and that it would eventually delete backup copies of US user data from those servers. of the owner. It is also in ongoing talks with CFIUS, a multi-agency US government body with national security jurisdiction, about the future handling of US data.
