TikTok pressed about China ties by US House Republicans, who allege misleading claims of user location data collection

Republican lawmakers raised the issue in a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Tuesday, coming ahead of the party taking control of the chamber in January
Concerns about TikTok, often a target of Republicans, have also been raised by Democrats and the Biden Administration

TikTok

Reuters

Published: 10:19am, 23 Nov, 2022

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Republican members of Congress, who will set the agenda for the House next year, pressed short video app TikTok on Tuesday over concerns the company may have misled Congress about how much user data it shares with China, where owner ByteDance is headquartered.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative James Comer, top Republican on the Oversight Committee, wrote to TikTok to say information provided in a staff briefing appeared to be inaccurate.

“Some of the information TikTok provided during the staff briefing appears to be untrue or misleading, including that TikTok does not track US user locations,” the Republican lawmakers said in a letter to TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew and dated Tuesday.

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TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following election wins earlier this month, Republicans will take control of the House in January. The letter could be a sign of tough scrutiny they plan to apply to Chinese companies including TikTok, a target of the Republican administration of former president Donald Trump.

But the Democratic Biden administration has also expressed concern about TikTok. FBI Director Christopher Wray said earlier this month the Chinese government could harness the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices.

Among other questions, the lawmakers asked TikTok to provide drafts of any agreement being negotiated with the Biden administration to allow TikTok to remain active in the United States.

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US President Joe Biden drops Donald Trump orders seeking ban on China’s TikTok, WeChat

The US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews US acquisitions by foreign companies for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears US user data could be passed on to China’s communist government.

CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months aiming to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok’s more than 100 million users.

President Joe Biden in June 2021 withdrew a series of Trump executive orders that sought to ban new downloads of TikTok and ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a review of security concerns posed by the apps.

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