By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two U.S. senators mentioned they have been investigating quick video sharing app TikTok’s reported choice not too long ago to rent a number of high-level executives from its Chinese language guardian firm, ByteDance.
Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Republican Marsha Blackburn mentioned in a letter on Tuesday to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew that the personnel strikes additional name “into query the independence of TikTok’s operations and the safety of its U.S. customers’ data.”TikTok, which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, is utilized by greater than 150 million Individuals and has confronted calls from U.S. lawmakers for a nationwide ban over considerations about potential Chinese language authorities affect.
“The personnel modifications give the impression
that TikTok is trying to protect ByteDance’s affect over TikTok whereas avoiding suspicion,” the senators wrote, asking for an in depth account of safety protocols being imposed on ByteDance staff that switch from China to the U.S.
Efforts to present the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok have stalled in Congress. Senator Maria Cantwell has been working with the White Home and different lawmakers on a revised invoice to handle considerations about TikTok and different foreign-owned apps.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who sought unanimously consent to win approval for laws to ban TikTok in Could, plans to power a vote on the problem later this yr. “We have to come again to it and we have to ban it,” he instructed Reuters final month. “(TikTok) has employed lobbyists by the bazillion, they’re within the halls consistently they usually have been capable of cease progress.”
Then-President Donald Trump in 2020 sought to bar new downloads of TikTok and one other Chinese language-owned app, WeChat, a unit of Tencent, however a collection of court docket choices blocked bans from taking impact.
TikTok is preventing a ban by the state of Montana set to take impact on Jan. 1. A choose has scheduled an Oct. 12 listening to on TikTok’s lawsuit.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Enhancing by Jonathan Oatis, Mark Porter, Alexandra Hudson)
