A 2017 Chinese law that requires local businesses to hand over personal data to the state if it is relevant to national security is at the heart of many of the concerns regarding TikTok.
As TikTok, owned by China, faces increasing calls for a ban in the United States, China insisted on Friday that it does not require businesses to hand over data gathered overseas.

The massively popular video-sharing app, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, is under increasing pressure to change ownership or lose access to the enormous US market.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was confronted with incessant questions from combative US lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle on Thursday during a grueling five-hour hearing regarding the app’s ties to China and its danger to adolescents.

A 2017 Chinese law that requires local businesses to hand over personal data to the state if it is relevant to national security is at the heart of many of the concerns surrounding TikTok. You May Like Forge of Empires – Free Online Game by Taboola Sponsored Links

Friday, Beijing stated that it “attaches great importance to protecting data privacy” and denied that it would request that Chinese companies hand over overseas data.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, stated at a regular briefing that China “has never and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide data located in a foreign country.”

Mao continued, “Until now, the US government has not provided any evidence that TikTok poses a threat to its national security.”

Chew was forced to admit that some American personal data was still subject to Chinese law in one particularly heated argument on Thursday, but he insisted that would soon change.

In addition, the company admitted in December that employees had used the data to spy on journalists and that some employees in China had access to user data from Europe.

However, the group has insisted that neither it nor the Chinese government have access to its data.

In his opening remarks, Chew addressed lawmakers by referring to ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok. “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government and is a private company.”

Chew went on to say that “we believe what’s needed are clear, transparent rules that apply broadly to all tech companies” and that “ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns.”

TikTok is attempting to withstand a White House ultimatum that it either split from its Chinese ownership or be banned in the United States. The former banker, who was educated at Harvard, was unable to defuse the existential threat.

Chew received no respite from lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who frequently denied him opportunities to elaborate on his responses or tout the site’s enormous global popularity among young people.

Project Texas

A boycott would be an extraordinary follow up on a media organization by the US government, removing the country’s 150 million month to month clients from an application that has turned into a social force to be reckoned with — particularly for youngsters.

TikTok has repeatedly chosen to increase surveillance, control, and manipulation. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, committee chair, stated, “Your platform ought to be banned.”

The hearing was criticized as political theater by TikTok supporters and free speech activists, who called for an outright ban.

Nadine Farid Johnson of PEN America, which advocates for free speech, stated, “Taking a bludgeon to TikTok, and by extension to Americans’ First Amendment protections, is not the right solution to the risks that TikTok poses to the privacy of Americans and to the national security of the United States.”

Additionally, on Friday, Beijing made the observation that “some in the US Congress stated that seeking a ban of TikTok is a xenophobic political persecution.”

TikTok is still trying to win over the authorities.

Chew’s testimony made the company’s elaborate plan, known as Project Texas, to address concerns about national security. Under this plan, a US-run division will handle US data.

However, lawmakers cast doubt on the project, asserting that it would not alleviate their concerns about TikTok’s vulnerability to China.