by Tom Parker, Reclaim The Net:
He also downplayed TikTok employees in China spying on US journalists.
During a fiery appearance in front of United States (US) lawmakers, the CEO of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok confirmed that China has access to US user data.
The revelation came when Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) repeatedly asked TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew whether any China-based employees of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have access to US user data.
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“After Project Texas [a $1.5 billion restructuring effort that’s intended to allay US concerns about China’s influence over TikTok] is done, the answer is no,” Chew said. “Today, there is still some data that we need to delete in Virginia and…”
After admitting that China-based employees can access user data Chew attempted to downplay the admission. When questioned by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) on China-based employees’ access to US user data, he insisted that “we have to be more specific” and that “some user data is public data which means “everybody can search” for it.
Chew told Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) that ByteDance employees in Bejing do have access to American data.
“We rely on global interoperability and we have employees in China so, yes, the Chinese engineers do have access to global data,” Chew said.
Chew was also pressed on the revelation that ByteDance employees based in China used TikTok to spy on US journalists and monitor their locations. Rep. Dunn (R-FL) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) both asked him about this and whether TikTok “could target other Americans with similar surveillance techniques.”
