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TikTok faces a crucial voteThe House is set to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would ostensibly present ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, with an ultimatum: sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, or have the app barred. But there’s a fight brewing over whether it’s actually possible for ByteDance to sell TikTok — or if the bill is effectively a ban disguised as a call for divestment. Does the bill allow for a sale? The proposal forbids any deal that allows TikTok’s U.S. and foreign operations to cooperate on a content recommendation algorithm or share data. While TikTok says it already walls off the data of U.S. users from its parent company, it’s not clear the company could operate without any foreign support.

Persons: it’s, ” TikTok, TikTok Organizations: TikTok’s U.S Locations: U.S, United States

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China is putting a spotlight on the future of TikTok in the United States, where criticism of the app and its ties to Beijing reached a fever pitch this year. Despite the intense pressure on the popular short-form video app, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, efforts to ban or regulate it in Washington have not yet borne fruit. And even with all that scrutiny, Ms. Raimondo is not planning to discuss TikTok while in China, a glaring omission that reflects the impasse at which it has left the Biden administration. The administration has been stymied by how to deal with TikTok even as intelligence officials have warned that it poses a national security threat. Ms. Raimondo memorably told Bloomberg News this year that if the administration banned TikTok, “the politician in me thinks you’re going to literally lose every voter under 35, forever.” (TikTok claims 150 million users in the United States.)

Persons: Gina Raimondo’s, Raimondo, ”, TikTok Organizations: Biden, White, Bloomberg News Locations: China, United States, Beijing, Washington

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday lawmakers will move forward with legislation to address national security worries about TikTok, alleging China's government had access to the short video app's user data. "The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party," McCarthy said on Twitter. In Thursday's hearing, the TikTok CEO was asked if of the app, has spied on Americans at Beijing's request. Republican Representative Neal Dunn then referenced the company's disclosure in December that some China-based employees at ByteDance improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company. McCarthy, a Republican, said in a tweet on Sunday, "It's very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can't be honest and admit what we already know to be true — China has access to TikTok user data."

☆ TikTok congressional hearing: CEO Shou Chew grilled by US lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, was repeatedly hammered in the ongoing hearing where no lawmaker offered any support. PARENTS UNHAPPYRepresentative Diana DeGette, a Democrat, said TikTok's efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation on the platform were not working. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein 1 2 3 4 5"You gave me only generalized statements that you're investing, that you're concerned, that you're doing work. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives on Twitter said, "TikTok CEO testimony so far we would characterize as a 'mini disaster' for this key moment for TikTok. TikTok is now poster child of the US/China tensions and lawmakers have a lot of q’s with not enough concrete answers."

☆ TikTok CEO faces tough questions from Congress about Chinese influence
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

CEO Shou Zi Chew's testimony before Congress capped a week of actions by the Chinese company aimed at convincing Americans and their lawmakers that the app creates economic value and supports free speech. The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing will be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who said she is unconvinced by TikTok's security commitments. Some political experts say a TikTok ban could be damaging to Democrats who have used the platform to reach younger voters. Three House Democrats rallied with TikTok creators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in opposition to a ban. TikTok last week said President Joe Biden's administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential ban.

☆ TikTok CEO to face tough questions amid calls for U.S. ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing will be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who says she is unconvinced by TikTok's security commitments. "It's clear that TikTok will say anything to ... ensure that it is not banned in the United States," she told Fox News. Some political experts say a TikTok ban could be damaging to Democrats who have used the platform to reach younger voters. Three House Democrats rallied with TikTok creators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in opposition to a ban. TikTok last week said President Joe Biden's administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential ban.

☆ TikTok CEO to face tough questions as support for U.S. ban grows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing will be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who says she is unconvinced by TikTok's security commitments. Some political experts say a TikTok ban could be damaging to Democrats who have used the platform to reach younger voters. Three House Democrats rallied with TikTok creators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in opposition to a ban. Last week, TikTok said President Joe Biden's administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential ban. Democratic Senator Mark Warner said on Wednesday two additional senators backed his bipartisan legislation with Republican John Thune to give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok - raising the total to 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

☆ TikTok CEO: App has never shared US data with Chinese government
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. TikTok's critics fear that its U.S. user data could be passed on to China's government by the app and prompted growing calls to ban the app by U.S. lawmakers. The video app has spent more than two years in talks with CFIUS seeking to reach an agreement on protecting U.S. user data. TikTok has formed a special-purpose subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS), that currently has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and contracted with Oracle (ORCL.N) to store TikTok’s U.S. user data. "Oracle has already begun inspecting TikTok’s sourcecode and will have unprecedented access to the related algorithms and data models," Chew's testimony said.

☆ Senate passes bill to bar federal employees from using TikTok on government devices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate late on Wednesday passed by voice vote a bill to bar federal employees from using Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok on government-owned devices. Stanislav Kogiku / Sipa via AP fileDuring the last Congress, the Senate in August 2020 unanimously approved legislation to bar TikTok from government devices. Many federal agencies including the Defense, Homeland Security and State departments already ban TikTok from government-owned devices. “TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and it has no place on government devices,” Hawley said previously. At a hearing last month, FBI Director Chris Wray said TikTok’s U.S. operations raise national security concerns.

QAnon conspiracy theory videos with thinly veiled hashtags are bringing in millions of views on TikTok ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The findings come as former President Donald Trump is ramping up his public support of the conspiracy theory. The top video on the hashtag — one of dozens related to the QAnon conspiracy theory — is explicitly pro-QAnon and was posted just five days ago. In July 2020, TikTok attempted to address the growth of QAnon hashtags on their platform by banning a selection of them. In October 2020, the company said it was expanding the ban to all videos on the platform that advance ideas from the conspiracy theory movement.

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