Whew, a native of Singapore, told the US Congress that TikTok has the safety of users as a priority, trying to avoid a ban on the social network in the United States by devaluing its links to China.
Both Republican and Democrat representatives aggressively questioned Chew on topics such as TikTok’s content control practices, its plans for effective data security and its history of spying on journalists.
Here are some of the concerns expressed about Tiktok and its Chinese owner:
WHY DOES WASHINGTON CONSIDER TIKTOK A THREAT?
TikTok, which has more than 150 million US users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology company ByteDance Ltd., which names its directors.
ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing but registered in the Cayman Islands, as is common with Chinese private companies.
Its headquarters are in the Haidian district, in the northwest of the Chinese capital, where the main universities and a center for technological ‘startups’ are located, but it has two other headquarters: in Singapore and Los Angeles, in the US state of California .
Founded by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in 2012, ByteDance is estimated to be worth around US$220 billion (about €204 billion) — nearly half of its valuation in 2021: US$400 billion ($372 billion). millions of euros).
Publicly owned and privately owned Chinese technology companies such as ByteDance have suffered a sharp devaluation since the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tightened control of the sector with repressive antitrust and data security measures. .
Western governments fear that Chinese authorities could compel ByteDance to provide them with data on US users of Tiktok, disclosing confidential information.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said today that the Chinese government has never asked and will never ask companies to “collect or provide confidential data, information or information” from foreign countries, adding that the United States “has not submitted, until now, any evidence that TikTok constitutes a threat to American national security.”
ByteDance claims that 60% of its shares are owned by non-Chinese investors, such as US investment firms Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Japanese group SoftBank. The workers own 20% and its founders own the remaining 20%.
But some details about the relationship between TikTok and ByteDance remain unclear from the outside.
WHICH CHINESE LEGISLATION CONCERNS WESTERN GOVERNMENTS?
China’s National Secret Information Law of 2017 stipulates that “any organization” must assist or cooperate with the work of state secret services, while another, the Counterintelligence Law of 2014, provides that “relevant organizations (… ) cannot refuse” to collect evidence for an investigation.
Since ByteDance, which owns Tiktok, is a Chinese company, it is likely that you will have to comply with these laws if the Chinese authorities ask you to hand over the data in your possession.
Laws and regulations are just one aspect of the CCP’s comprehensive control, to whose powers there are no legal limits.
Authorities can also threaten to cancel licenses, carry out operational or tax inspections, and use other penalties to enforce regulations on Chinese or foreign companies operating in China.
The party sometimes issues orders using “guidelines” or informal private communication, and has resorted to crackdowns to tighten its grip on tech companies and force them to align with its goals, as well as gain more direct control by placing its members on boards of directors.
DOES TIKTOK HAVE TO DELIVER CONFIDENTIAL DATA IF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT REQUIRES IT, EVEN WITH THE “TEXAS PROJECT”?
TikTok committed to protecting US users’ data by storing it on servers operated by an outside company, Oracle Corp., in what became known as “Project Texas”.
Chew, Tiktok’s chief executive, said all data for new US users is stored in the United States and that the company is expected to finish deleting older US data from servers other than Oracle this year.
The fear is that ByteDance may have to hand over information it obtained from Tiktok if ordered to do so by Chinese authorities, but Chew said Project Texas will put the US data out of reach of China.
ByteDance revealed in December that four employees accessed data on journalists and people related to them while trying to understand how information about the company had been released.
Chew told US congressmen that ByteDance workers based in China may still have access to some US data, but that will no longer be the case once Project Texas is complete.
In November, TikTok’s director of privacy for Europe indicated that some employees in China had access to information about users in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
DOES THE CCP HAVE ANY INFLUENCE ON BYTEDANCE?
At the hearing, congressmen repeatedly tried to get Chew to talk about whether there is any relationship between ByteDance and China’s communist rulers, but he was always evasive about whether the company’s workers and directors are members of the CCP.
“I know that the founder himself is not a member of the Communist Party, but we don’t know the political orientation of our employees, because that’s not something we ask them,” Chew said.
When asked whether ByteDance is, in practice, controlled by the CCP, Chew disagreed.
After a congressman claimed that the CCP owns a “golden share” (a “golden share”) in ByteDance, which entitles it to a seat on the company’s board of directors, Chew responded, “That’s not correct.”
In China, the so-called “golden shares” owned by official investment funds are a way for Beijing to gain greater control over business, granting it 1% of the shares of companies.
When congressmen argued that the CCP owns shares in ByteDance, which gives it a vote on how the company is run, Chew responded, “The Communist Party has no vote in ByteDance.”
ByteDance’s main Chinese subsidiary owns licenses for some of its video and information platforms which are only intended for the Chinese market.
WHAT IS DOUYIN AND WHAT IS TIKTOK’S RELATIONSHIP WITH IT?
Douyin is ByteDance’s short video platform for the Chinese market; is similar to TikTok, but its content is restricted by Chinese censorship regulations, which prohibit material deemed subversive or pornographic — a point made by US lawmakers concerned about harmful content viewed by young people.
The CCP’s extensive internet filters prevent most users in China from viewing TikTok, and ByteDance said TikTok was “not affiliated” with Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., the subsidiary that operates Douyin, Toutiao, a platform news and short videos, and other services.
HOW DID CHINA REACT TO THE TESTIMONY OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF TIKTOK IN WASHINGTON?
Most reactions on social media in China were empathetic towards Chew, praising him for the way he handled the hostile questions he was confronted with.
Comments on Douyin and on the microblogging platform Weibo criticized members of the US Congress for asking Chew leading or “creepy” questions, and many commenters used a Chinese proverb that means “If you want to accuse someone, there’s always a way to to do”.
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