Pressure on Tik Tok grows in the U. S.
2023.01.06 16:05
Pressure on Tik Tok grows in the U. S.
Budrigannews.com – Two people who are familiar with the situation stated that TikTok has put off hiring consultants to assist it in implementing a potential security agreement with the United States due to growing opposition to such a deal among officials in the United States.
ByteDance, a Chinese technology conglomerate, owns the short-video app, and it has been attempting to reassure Washington for the past three years that neither the Chinese Communist Party nor any other organization influenced by Beijing can access or alter the personal information of U.S. citizens.
In 2021, President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban TikTok in the United States was overturned by President Joe Biden. However, talks between his administration and the social media company have continued over a possible deal that would prevent ByteDance from having to divest TikTok.
TikTok has been developing a program to reassure the United States government that it will adhere to their security agreement.
The program involves employing a third-party monitor, a source code inspector, and three auditors, one of whom is devoted to cyber security and the other to guaranteeing that U.S. user data on TikTok servers will be deleted upon migration to Oracle Corp. (NYSE:), the two people who are aware of the situation said.
TikTok would pay for these positions, but they would report to officials in the United States government.
At the beginning of December, TikTok put out requests for proposals for some of these positions in order to present potential candidates to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the security panel that has been looking into ByteDance’s ownership of the popular app.
According to the sources, TikTok informed the consultants competing for one of the roles late last month that the hiring process was on hold and that it would update them by the end of January on whether it will restart. This is evidence that a deal with the United States remains out of reach.
One of the sources stated that TikTok cited “recent developments” in its explanation to consultants without providing additional details.
After admitting in December that some of its employees had improperly accessed the TikTok user data of two journalists in an effort to identify the source of information leaks to the media, TikTok made the decision to freeze hiring.
According to people familiar with the discussions, this upset some U.S. officials who were in favor of a security deal with TikTok and strengthened the position of China hawks in the U.S. government who want Biden to order ByteDance to divest from the app.
When the US government will make a decision regarding TikTok’s future is still unknown.
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed that the third-party security vendor hiring process had been halted due to CFIUS’s inability to approve the security agreement. She continued, “TikTok had hoped it would have reached a deal by now.”
Additionally, the spokesperson stated that TikTok was filling data security positions “rapidly” that did not require security approval.
The spokesperson stated, “We are continuing to move forward on security measures overall,” despite the fact that “some components of our plan are specific to US government oversight.”
The White House and the Treasury Department, which is in charge of CFIUS, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
TikTok has already announced a number of measures to placate the U.S. government, such as an agreement with Oracle to store user data in the United States and the establishment of a United States security division (USDS) to oversee content moderation and data protection. To build that unit, it has spent $1.5 billion on hiring and reorganizing.
The spokeswoman stated that the USDS division’s headcount is anticipated to exceed 2,500 for positions in engineering, security, trust and safety, and other areas.
Chris Griner, a security lawyer at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP who is not involved in the negotiations with TikTok, stated that TikTok’s misuse of journalists’ data undermined previous assurances that user information would be protected.
Griner stated to Reuters, “We have done many reviews before CFIUS over decades – and trust is a critical component in successful reviews.” It is extremely difficult to get it back once it is gone.”
As part of a larger dispute over trade, intellectual property, and human rights, lawmakers in the United States have used TikTok’s security concerns to press the White House to take a tough stance.
Following similar bans by some states and local authorities, Biden signed a spending bill into law last month that prohibits the use of TikTok on devices issued by the government by approximately 4 million federal employees.
The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will meet with Margrethe Vestager, the chief antitrust officer of the European Union, next week in Brussels to talk about things like how online platforms protect personal data and how the EU’s Digital Services Act will be put into action.
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