TikTok was grilled about its parent company by the senators during the recent US Senate Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation. US Senator Ted Cruz said that while TikTok’s product in China promoted educational content to children, its US counterpart was promoting self-harm videos and anti-Israel propaganda. Cruz quoted a recent report that compared hashtags on Instagram to those on TikTok. “So for something like hashtag Taylor Swift or hashtag Trump, researchers found roughly two Instagram posts for every one on TikTok. That’s not a dramatic difference. That difference jumps to eight to one for the hashtag Uyghur, and it jumps to 30 to one for the hashtag Tibet. And it jumps to 57 to one to the hashtag Tiananmen,” he pointed out, asking whether TikTok was censoring content at the request of the Chinese government.
TikTok’s CEO Show Zi Chew explained that the analysis in that report had been debunked. “Fundamentally, a few things happened here. Not all videos carry hashtags. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that you cannot selectively choose a few words within a certain time period [and compare them],” Chew said. He added that TikTok’s algorithm doesn’t suppress any content.
What happened to TikTok data before it was walled off from its Chinese parent company?
In 2022, TikTok announced that it had started routing American users’ data to US-based servers owned by Oracle. US senator John Cornyn brought up this attempt to wall off data from China. He asked Chew what happened to the data collected before 2016, given that TikTok’s initial release occurred in 2016 and attempts to wall off data finished in 2023, since under Chinese national laws all information collected by companies in the People’s Republic of China is required to be shared with the Chinese intelligence services.
“We have started a data deleting plan,” Chew said, adding that the company had completed the first phase of deletion through its data centers outside of the Oracle cloud infrastructure. “And we’re beginning phase two, where we will not only delete from the data centers, we will hire a third party to verify that work and then we will go into employees working laptop and delete that as well,” he said. Cornyn asked Chew whether the data collected prior to 2022 was shared with Chinese intelligence to which Chew said that they had not been asked for any data and had never provided it either.
“Now, under this law, which says shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of, it compels people subject to the law to lie to protect those secrets,” Cruz pointed out. Chew responded that he could not comment on the law, adding TikTok is not available in China, reiterating the company’s data localization and data deletion efforts. “I’m going to tell you, and I told this when you and I met last week in my office. I do not believe you. And I’ll tell you, the American people don’t either,” Cruz said.
To this, Cornyn quoted a Wall Street Journal article that revealed that US users’ birth dates, IP addresses, and emails continue to be shared by Bytedance staff (TikTok’s parent company) which has ownership in China. “There are many things about that article that are inaccurate,” he said. Chew mentioned that what the article did get right was the fact that “this is a voluntary project that we built. We’ve spent billions of dollars. There are thousands of employees involved, and it’s very difficult because it’s unprecedented.”
Why was it important for TikTok to localize its US users’ data?
When asked this Chew said that the move had been in response to some of the concerns that were raised by members of the subcommittee and others. Cornyn asked Chew whether these concerns were that TikTok data was accessible to the Chinese Communist Party. “Senator, we are not the only company that does business that has Chinese employees. For example, we’re not even the only company in this room that hires Chinese nationals,” Chew responded.
Is TikTok being reviewed for potential national security risks?
Cornyn pointed out that TikTok was under review by the committee of foreign investment in the US. Such reviews are typically done on foreign investments that pose national security risks. Chew explained that TikTok’s ongoing review is for its acquisition of Musical.ly. “Its been many years across two administrations and a lot of discussion around how our plans, how our systems work,” he said.
Is TikTok allowing children to be exploited into performing commercialized sex acts?
“I respectfully disagree with that characterization our live-streaming product is not for anyone below the age of 18. We have taken action to identify anyone who violates that, and we remove them from using that service,” Chew said.
Also read:
- CEOs Of X, Discord And Snap To Testify In A Hearing About Online Child Sexual Exploitation
- TikTok Under Investigation By UK Communications Regulator For Providing Inaccurate Information On Parental Control Measures
- Nepal Bans Chinese App TikTok Citing ‘Negative Effects’ On Social Harmony: Report
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