China vows to block Biden administration’s plan to force the sale of TikTok
TikTok’s boss has made a startling admission at a US congressional hearing as the apps future hangs in the balance.
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China is opposing a US plan to force the sale of TikTok, leaving the app’s future hanging in the balance as its Chinese owners are caught in a dispute between the superpowers.
On a day of drama, TikTok’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew conceded engineers in China had access to some data from the app’s one billion users, as he fronted a fiery congressional hearing in which American politicians argued for it to be banned.
And the UK parliament moved to block TikTok from all devices on its network, broadening a ban on government phones announced last week that upped the pressure on Australia to take similar action.
It was revealed this month that President Joe Biden’s administration had demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the app or face a ban, amid mounting concerns that the Chinese government could access user data and influence the content users were shown.
China’s commerce ministry responded on Thursday, with a spokeswoman warning Chinese government approval would be required for a sale – because it involved exporting technology – and they would “firmly oppose” any such moves.
It came just before Mr Chew’s first appearance at a congressional inquiry in Washington DC, where he avoided commenting on the Chinese government’s intervention and said the company took national security and privacy concerns “very, very seriously”.
He said TikTok – used by 150 million Americans – would not be “manipulated by any foreign government” and that by the end of this year, all US user data would be behind a “firewall” in American servers run by American employees to prevent “unauthorised foreign access”.
But under heated questioning, Mr Chew acknowledged engineers at the company’s Chinese parent company ByteDance would have access to some user data until TikTok’s $US1.5bn “Project Texas” privacy overhaul was completed.
“I have seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data,” he said.
“They have never asked us, we have not provided it.”
House energy and commerce committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said: “We do not trust that TikTok will ever embrace America’s values.”
“When you celebrate the 150 million American users on TikTok, it emphasises the urgency for Congress to act,” she said.
“TikTok surveils us all, and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America.”
“From the data it collects to the content it controls, TikTok is a grave threat of foreign influence in American life.”
Prior to the hearing, Mr Chew appealed directly to users about the risks to the app’s future, warning politicians “could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you”.
While a ban has support among Democrats and Republicans in the US, Mr Biden’s Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently admitted: “The politician in me thinks you’re going to literally lose every voter under 35 forever.”
The Australian government is soon expected to follow the lead of countries including the US and the UK by banning the app from government devices after a review of the security risks.
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