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China and U.S. flags are seen near a TikTok logo in this illustration picture taken July 16, 2020. Florence Lo | ReutersBEIJING — China says it would "strongly oppose" a forced sale of TikTok, making clear the government's involvement with the social media giant that's trying hard to distance itself from Beijing authorities. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese Commerce Ministry's remarks. But the commerce ministry's claim of control over a TikTok sale or spinoff indicates Beijing wants to be involved. When asked about the commerce ministry's remarks Thursday, TikTok's CEO said the app isn't available in mainland China and is based in Los Angeles.

☆ Everyone in Washington is talking about a TikTok ban. But is it really a national security threat?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

However, more than two years after the Trump administration first issued a similar threat to TikTok, evidence remains unclear about whether the app is a national security threat. “Regarding privacy, we also did not see the TikTok app exhibiting any behaviors similar to malware.”TikTok has cited Lin’s research as part of its defense. He also repeatedly noted that TikTok does not collect more user data than most of its peers in the industry. TikTok later confirmed the incident and ByteDance fired several employees who had improperly accessed the TikTok data of two journalists. “And governments around the world are ignoring their duty to protect citizens’ private information, allowing big tech companies to exploit user information for gain.

☆ The US government is seeing ‘an increasing number’ of TikTok-like data security cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The US government is tracking a growing number of foreign-linked business transactions that pose potential data risks to national security similar to those raised by TikTok, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers Thursday. At a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Yellen said regulators charged with screening foreign investment deals for national security risks have witnessed a rise in such cases, but she declined to discuss specifics. “When it comes to data, we’re seeing an increasing number of cases that do present risks around this issue of the type that have been mentioned in connection with TikTok,” Yellen told Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson. “We’ve requested increases to be able to do that, especially given the role that the Department plays in imposing sanctions,” Yellen said. “We are a target of a serious number of cyberattacks and we are investing very heavily in cybersecurity to meet very high standards.”

☆ 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.

☆ Potential TikTok ban sends advertisers scrambling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In recent discussions with ad buyers, TikTok representatives have stuck to the company's current talking points. TikTok employees have played up ongoing plans to separate the user data of Americans and store it in the country. In a section of the email titled "Can the Chinese government request TikTok U.S. user data?" Even with talk of a ban, most advertisers have not changed their spending plans on TikTok, media buyers said, because discussions of a ban have lingered since 2020 without any result. "A ban isn't a ban until it's a ban," he said.

☆ 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.

☆ The TikTok hearing is mostly lawmakers berating the CEO and loudly asking 'Yes or no?' to detailed questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Dan Whateley | Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TikTok CEO Shou Chew appeared before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday. Chew's remarks were often cut short as Congress members pressed him for "yes" or "no" responses. "Welcome to the most bipartisan committee in Congress," Republican Rep. Earl LeRoy "Buddy" Carter said, addressing Chew as "Mr. Chew's responses to questions were often cut short as members of Congress asked for shorter "yes" or "no" responses. In the days leading up to the committee hearing, TikTok helped arrange a press conference with Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman that it described as a push "in support of free expression."

☆ TikTok CEO got grilled by lawmakers from both parties on whether the Chinese-owned app can protect American privacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"Welcome to the most bipartisan committee in Congress," boomed Rep. Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., noted this was the 32nd hearing Congress has held on privacy and Big Tech. A ban or forced sale of the app, which some members think is the only way to solve the immediate risks, is another matter. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) is reviewing ByteDance's acquisition of TikTok's predecessor app, Musical.ly. Or, the government could find other ways to try to ban the app.

☆ Is TikTok’s time up? CEO’s skewering before Congress raises questions about app’s future in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“TikTok’s fate in the US is on shakier ground than ever following lawmakers’ grueling questioning of Chew,” Insider Intelligence principal analyst Jasmine Enberg said. The 40-year-old Harvard-educated Chew was never going to get a warm welcome from US lawmakers. Chew, welcome to the most bipartisan committee in Congress,” Republican Rep. That said, Chew needed to provide clear, direct answers to questions posed by lawmakers, particularly those regarding fears of potential Chinese authority over the company. Instead, his murky answers on questions pertaining to the Communist Party of China led to added confusion at times.

☆ TikTok CEO set for grilling in House hearing. But U.S. lawmakers also face questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +15 min

U.S. tech platforms including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube , Twitter and Snap's Snapchat have raised similar fears for lawmakers and users. Evaluating a potential banThere's little appetite in Washington to accept the potential risks that TikTok's ownership by Chinese company ByteDance poses to U.S. national security. The interagency panel tasked with reviewing national security risks stemming from ByteDance's ownership has threatened a ban if the company won't sell its stake in the app. Trahan said members should ask about national security risks of the app, but those questions should be substantive. Bowman noted lawmakers haven't received a bipartisan congressional briefing from the administration on national security risks stemming from TikTok.

☆ TikTok CEO says China-based ByteDance employees still have access to some U.S. data
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Lawmakers and intelligence officials fear that U.S. user data could get into the hands of the Chinese government via ByteDance. TikTok said Thursday that Project Texas is already in action but there are many steps to reach its completion. The data on those servers is the kind that could theoretically still be accessed by China-based ByteDance employees for the time being. Once that data is deleted, according to TikTok, those employees will no longer have access to U.S. user data from the app. WATCH: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew: I don't condone effort by former employees to access U.S. user data

☆ Watch live: TikTok CEO testifies before House committee as potential U.S. ban looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

TikTok has touted a complex plan known as Project Texas to help ease U.S. concerns over its ownership. After two years of negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, the White House reportedly demanded last week that ByteDance sell TikTok. On Thursday, a Chinese commerce ministry spokeswoman said, "If the news is true, China will resolutely oppose it." TikTok became a viral sensation in the U.S. by allowing young people to create and share short videos. But the company announced this week that it has 150 million users in the United States, a figure that, if confirmed, amounts to nearly 60% of the population.

☆ 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.

☆ TikTok CEO to tell lawmakers its parent company is ‘not an agent of China’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to tell US lawmakers that the app’s parent company, ByteDance, does not work for the Chinese government as he seeks to avert a US ban and reassure policymakers TikTok poses no national security threat. “Let me state this unequivocally,” Chew will say, according to a copy of his remarks released by a key House panel. New TikTok data created by US users is already being stored on cloud-based servers operated by the US tech giant Oracle, a change that took effect last month, according to the testimony. USDS already has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and the company plans to hire more. Chew plans to describe the incident as a “misguided attempt to trace the source of a leak of confidential TikTok information.” TikTok informed the Energy and Commerce Committee about the spying “within moments of informing our employees,” Chew will add.

☆ China may prefer TikTok to be banned than fall into US hands
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

TikTok’s algorithms, which keep users glued to the app, are believed to be key to its success. The intended sale of TikTok in 2020 to Oracle and Walmart hit a snag after Beijing added algorithms to its export control list. Under the plans, known as Project Texas, the US government and third-party companies such as Oracle would also have some degree of oversight of TikTok’s data practices. But that hasn’t reassured US officials, likely because no matter what TikTok does internally, China would still theoretically have leverage over TikTok’s Chinese owners. But, he believes Beijing would ultimately prefer for TikTok leave the US market rather than surrender its algorithm.

☆ TikTok and its CEO are fighting to save the app in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

In his talk, Chew, the CEO of TikTok, said the social network would not provide US user data to the Chinese government and has never been asked to do so. Chew stressed the steps TikTok has taken to protect US user data. The Harvard event is just one of several media appearances Chew has made in recent weeks amid mounting scrutiny of TikTok and of himself. “It’s life or death for TikTok, from their perspective,” said Justin Sherman, the CEO of Global Cyber Strategies, D.C.-based research and advisory firm, who was among the researchers TikTok invited to be briefed on “Project Texas,” the company’s $1.5 billion initiative to address lawmakers’ security concerns. But for some lawmakers with security concerns, the latest push “may be too little too late.”In his TikTok video on Tuesday, Chew appealed directly to users of the app.

☆ Lawmakers say TikTok is a national security threat, but evidence remains unclear
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

If there’s a risk, it’s primarily concentrated in the relationship between TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, and Beijing. TikTok has been erecting technical and organizational barriers that it says will keep US user data safe from unauthorized access. “Regarding privacy, we also did not see the TikTok app exhibiting any behaviors similar to malware.”Are there other security concerns? TikTok later confirmed the incident and ByteDance fired several employees who had improperly accessed the TikTok data of two journalists. “And governments around the world are ignoring their duty to protect citizens’ private information, allowing big tech companies to exploit user information for gain.

☆ It's wild that Western governments have decided that TikTok might spy for China. The app hasn't helped itself.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

TikTok denies it feeds user data to China, but the drip-drip of revelations hasn't helped. The suspicion is that TikTok's owner ByteDance is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party and shares data about Western users with China. TikTok has maintained the app doesn't spy on individuals, and has pointed to the steps it's taking to hive off user information. FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded to Bertram asking if "any member of the CCP accessed non-public US or EU user data from inside China." US social-media services normalized the aggressive harvesting of user data, and routinely hand over information to international governments.

☆ TikTok's CEO says demands from the Biden administration for its Chinese owners to sell up won't solve security fears in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their shares, or face a US-wide ban. But the app's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, says this wouldn't actually solve anything. Chew said that's because TikTok is proposing to spend billions on storing American users' data in the US by partnering with Oracle. That would also prevent any Chinese influence over which TikToks US users see, per the WSJ. "I do welcome feedback on what other risk we are talking about that is not addressed by this," Chew told the newspaper.

The Biden administration and CFIUS are pushing for a sale of TikTok in the US. The Chinese government could also block a TikTok sale outright before bidding kicks off. But the list of companies that would actually consider buying TikTok is small, experts told Insider. "I think Microsoft would be one of the only big money, big company possibilities." Ultimately, separating TikTok's US operations, whether in a sale to a big tech firm or a spin off, is complicated.

☆ TikTok's potential U.S. ban presents host of questions for app stores, internet companies and the government
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The TikTok logo is displayed outside TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023. related investing news What a potential TikTok ban could mean for Club holding Meta Platforms It's not an issue yet, as there are still some ways a TikTok ban could be avoided or accessed legally in the U.S. Should the U.S. ban TikTok, the mechanics on what happens from there get murky. And the app stores controlled by Apple and Google are the primary places for consumers to download the TikTok app. Under Chinese law, companies can be required to hand over internal information to the government for supposed national security purposes.

☆ TikTok could be banned in the US unless the app’s Chinese owners sell their stakes. The Biden administration is demanding it, WSJ reports.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US is threatening TikTok's Chinese owners with a US ban if they don't sell their stakes, according to the WSJ. TikTok has responded saying the forced sale won't address the perceived national security risk. Still, TikTok's leadership is considering splitting from ByteDance to work around the national security concerns, Bloomberg reported. In December, the Senate voted to ban TikTok on government devices, and several states have since introduced full or partial bans of the app. Universities have also made moves to ban TikTok.

☆ Biden administration demands TikTok’s Chinese owners spin off their share or face US ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok from the United States unless the app’s Chinese owners agree to spin off their share of the social media platform, TikTok acknowledged Wednesday evening. “If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said in a statement. But so far, there has been no evidence that the Chinese government has actually accessed TikTok user data, and no government has enacted a broader ban targeting TikTok on personal devices. TikTok has sought to address policymakers’ concerns with voluntary technical and bureaucratic safeguards that it says will help ensure US user data may only be accessed by US employees. Part of that initiative, which the company calls Project Texas, involves storing personal data with the US cloud giant Oracle.

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