TikTok Has American's Financial And Security Data And Our Politicians Are Shocked They Were Lied To
Upon further review, TikTok and their Chinese-backed parent company ByteDance do have American users' private financial data.
The new revelation comes in a follow-up to a Forbes investigation that I reported on just a few weeks ago as Congress seeks to find out if the social media platform wasn't being entirely truthful.
In May, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified to a Congressional House committee that "American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore." However, after a Forbes investigation revealed that TikTok and ByteDance allegedly have personal and financial information from American TikTok "creators" and businesses, Congress wanted further clarification.
Senate Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Marsha Blackburn reached out to TikTok for answers because they were shocked - SHOCKED! - that they may have been lied to. It turns out their doubts were correct.
TikTok has faced heavy scrutiny from American politicians over its handling of private data. (Photo by Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
SEMANTICS
According to a newly released statement by Tiktok, “U.S. user data collected by the TikTok app” and information that American TikTok creators give to TikTok in order to be paid for content are two different things.
Yes, my friends, this has come down to a battle over semantics, and our politicians are too dumb to realize they are being played here. The stakes are high - some of that data includes private financial information, social security numbers and more - ya know, things you don't want our biggest adversaries to have.
“We stand by the statements made by our company executives to Congress,” TikTok's statement continued. “We were asked about, and our testimony focused on, the protected user data collected in the app - not creator data.”
Because Congress didn't SPECIFICALLY differentiate and ask about each individual part of American TikTok users data, that allowed the company to broadly state where the data is located. The company has not confirmed Forbes reporting that the data is actually stored in China, but they didn't say it wasn't either.
CHINA - U.S. TENSIONS ARE AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH
TikTok's statement is technically right - the Committee didn't ask them specifics. Shame on our politicians to think that TikTok, ByteDance and the Chinese were going to just play nice and willfully hand over sensitive, internal (and possibly illegal) data. You'd think Congress would realize just how high the international stakes are between the U.S. and China these days.
“TikTok executives appear to have repeatedly and intentionally misled Congress when answering how the company secures and protects the data of Americans. TikTok’s response makes it crystal clear that Americans’ data is still exposed to Beijing’s draconian and pervasive spying games – despite the claims of TikTok’s misleading public relations campaign," Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn said in a joint statement.
Gee, the Chinese aren't being forthcoming? Where have we heard this before?