TikTok responds to data privacy concerns raised by Republican senators
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded to the concerns of nine Republican senators about data privacy and access to U.S. user data in China.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded in a lengthy letter to the concerns of nine Republican senators about data privacy and access to U.S. user data in China, which they outlined in a June letter to the company.
The senators’ letter, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., expressed concern over a recent BuzzFeed News investigation which indicated that China-based TikTok employees had access to data from U.S. users. NBC News has not independently verified that reporting. TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance and has been a target for Republicans in recent years.
Blackburn’s letter included a series of 11 questions that the senators requested answers to by July 18. In his letter of response, dated June 30, Chew addressed each of the questions in detail.
While acknowledging that Chinese employees do have limited access to U.S. user data, Chew wrote that the “allegations and insinuations” from the BuzzFeed News article are “incorrect and are not supported by facts.”
“[W]e are confident that when you review our responses, you will see that TikTok has not, at any point, misled Congress about our data and security controls and practices.”
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