Tiktok boss must appear in the US Congress
Tiktok is under increasing political pressure because the platform belongs to the Bytedance group from China. On Thursday, company boss Shou Zi Chew had to answer questions from US lawmakers in Congress. When questioned, Shou Zi Chew met with deep distrust and rejection. In the approximately five-hour hearing, President Joe Biden’s Democrats and Republicans emphasized with rare unity that previous steps to isolate US data from the short video app from the Chinese parent company Bytedance were not enough for them. In the US, the service has more than 150 million users. It is also widespread in Germany. Tiktok has more than a billion users worldwide.
Fear of Chinese espionage
Tiktok is the only online platform that is also successful in the West that does not come from the USA. There is increasing concern in the US and Europe that Chinese authorities and secret services could use it to collect information from users or influence users. According to media reports, the US government is demanding the exit of Chinese shareholders. Tiktok rejects such allegations and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60% owned by western investors. The company is based on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders held control with a 20% stake thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.
Banning the app on government employees’ work phones in several countries
In the US, Canada and Great Britain, the app is banned from government employees’ work phones, including by the EU Commission. A law is also in the works in the US Congress that could give President Joe Biden the power to ban the app altogether. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had already tried to force the sale of Tiktok’s international business with a threat of a ban. However, he was stopped by US courts, which saw a lack of legal basis for the action.
Tiktok wants to create more transparency
Tiktok emphasizes that it has never received data requests from the Chinese government and will not comply with them because there is no legal basis for it. The service is attempting to address concerns with promises of more transparency. Data from European users is to be stored in three data centers in Europe. So far they are stored in Singapore and the USA. An independent partner will also monitor the flow of data and access to information. In the USA, Tiktok has the software code of its app checked in a similar structure by the software group Oracle.
Faeser wants to take action against state interference from China
Faeser wants to take general action against state interference from China. “We have just come from a strong dependence on Russia for energy supply. We don’t want to create further dependencies,” said the SPD politician. With regard to Tiktok, she emphasized that great care is taken to identify state influence by China as early as possible. During her visit to the United States, she also wanted to talk about the influence exerted by disinformation campaigns run by Russia and China.
Editor beck-aktuell, March 24, 2023 (dpa).