Two US congressmen allege that TikTok user data in the US is shared by the platform with its parent company in China through an internal messaging system called Lark.
According to information released by US lawmakers, citing data from The New York Times, TikTok user data in the US, including driver’s license information as well as information related to the status of users. child sexual abuse was shared between the platform and ByteDance (the parent company located in China) through an internal messaging app called Lark.
Previously, in March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had a hearing before members of the Energy and Commerce Committee (under the US House of Representatives) related to the issue of storing shared platform user data. share short-form videos in the territory of this country. Mr. Chew confirmed that the information is stored in the US, operated by US companies, and managed by Americans. However, MPs do not fully believe it
Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (Republican) recently accused the TikTok CEO of giving “misleading and inaccurate answers” before the Senate and demanded to Ask company leaders respond to dozens of questions by the end of this week.
In a letter to the CEO, the two US senators wrote: “We are disturbed by TikTok’s misleading or inaccurate response to serious issues related to user safety, security, and security. country, and asked TikTok to correct and explain its previous inaccurate statements.”
report The NYT revealed that “the vast amount of user data on Lark can be easily accessed by ByteDance employees in China and other regions”. Besides, Lark is also a messaging platform hosted in China. magazine Last month, the famous Forbes published an article revealing that a lot of the financial information of content creators on TikTok, including tax data, and social security numbers are stored by this platform. stored in China.
Both congressmen claimed to have heard many times from both TikTok employees and CEOs about storing US user data in Virginia (USA) and Singapore. Not once did he mention that TikTok stores user data in China, or information about Americans, including sensitive content such as photos, driver’s licenses, and reports containing legal documents. can be shared on Lark and easily accessible by ByteDance employees,” the US lawmaker said in a letter to CEO Chew
