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Two senators despatched a letter to TikTok’s chief govt on Tuesday, accusing the corporate of constructing deceptive claims to Congress round the way it shops and handles American consumer knowledge, and demanding solutions to greater than a dozen questions by the tip of subsequent week.
The letter, from Senators Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, targeted on how delicate knowledge about American customers could also be saved in China and the way workers there could have entry to it.
The lawmakers mentioned current experiences from The New York Occasions and Forbes raised questions on statements made throughout congressional testimony in March by Shou Chew, TikTok’s chief govt, and in an October 2021 listening to involving Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public coverage for the Americas. TikTok is owned by the Chinese language firm ByteDance.
“We’re deeply troubled by TikTok’s recurring sample of offering deceptive, inaccurate or false info to Congress and its customers in the US, together with in response to us throughout oversight hearings and letters,” the senators wrote.
TikTok has been working for years to persuade the U.S. authorities that it may well separate its U.S. operations and wall off American consumer knowledge amid issues that the corporate might present that info to the Chinese language authorities.
“We’re reviewing the letter,” mentioned Alex Haurek, a spokesman for TikTok. “We stay assured within the accuracy of our testimony and responses to Congress.”
Forbes reported final month that TikTok has saved the delicate monetary info of creators, together with Social Safety numbers and tax IDs, on servers in China, the place workers there can have entry to them. TikTok makes use of inner instruments and databases from ByteDance to handle funds to creators who earn cash via the app, Forbes mentioned.
The Occasions reported earlier within the month that American consumer knowledge, together with driver’s licenses and doubtlessly unlawful content material equivalent to youngster sexual abuse supplies, was shared at TikTok and ByteDance via an inner messaging and collaboration device known as Lark.
The data was usually accessible in Lark “teams” — chat rooms of workers — with hundreds of members, alarming some employees as a result of ByteDance employees in China and elsewhere might simply see the fabric. The Occasions discovered that Lark knowledge was saved on servers in China as of late final yr. On the time, TikTok didn’t reply to questions on whether or not Lark knowledge is at present saved in China.
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