US House committee votes to release closed-door hearing transcript in TikTok lawsuit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House committee on Thursday voted to release a transcript of a closed-door hearing in March on threats posed by TikTok to the Justice Department in its defense of a law that seeks to force its Chinese owner to divest the popular app’s U.S. assets.

China-based ByteDance, TikTok and a group of TikTok creators have filed suits to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans if the company fails to divest by Jan. 19. The Justice Department asked the Energy and Commerce Committee to receive a copy of the transcript from the classified March hearing “to assist in their litigation,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee chair.

It’s not clear if any part of the transcript will be made public.