United States senators said they are investigating social media company TikTok after it was found to have hired executives from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
The lawmakers leading the probe, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn, sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Tuesday. They noted that moving personnel between the two firms calls into question the independence of TikTok's operations and the security of its US users' information.
Investigation Into TikTok
The short video hosting app did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the issue. More than 150 million Americans use the platform, and it has faced various calls from American lawmakers for a nationwide ban over potential Chinese government influence concerns.
In a statement, the senators said that the personnel changes suggest that TikTok is trying to preserve ByteDance's influence over the company while avoiding suspicion. They also ask for a detailed account of security protocols imposed on ByteDance employees who transfer from China to the US, as per the South China Morning Post.
The situation comes as efforts to provide United States President Joe Biden's administration new powers to ban TikTok have stalled in Congress. Sen. Maria Cantwell has been working with the White House and other lawmakers on a revised bill to address concerns about TikTok and other foreign-owned apps in the US.
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Additionally, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who previously sought unanimous consent to win approval for legislation to ban TikTok in May, is planning to force a vote on the issue later this year. He claims that the company has hired lobbyists who were constantly in the halls and have stopped progress.
Former United States President Donald Trump sought in 2020 to bar new downloads of TikTok and WeChat, another Chinese-owned app. However, a series of court decisions blocked bans from being implemented.
TikTok's Relationship with ByteDance
According to TechCrunch, the high-level executives in question took on top roles across ByteDance and now hold key positions in advertising, HR, monetization, business marketing, and others related to TikTok's e-commerce initiatives.
Reports suggest that hiring executives shows that TikTok still maintains relatively close ties with ByteDance despite the social media company trying to distance itself from its Chinese roots. The company has even moved US user data to Oracle servers in the US to prevent a nationwide ban on its platform.
Despite these efforts, several bans have been implemented across several US government-issued devices, including those used by the US House of Representatives and various US states.
The US is not the only one that has moved to ban TikTok, including Canada and Europe, as officials cite security threats. Western lawmakers and regulators have increasingly expressed concern that TikTok and ByteDance could put sensitive user data into the hands of the Chinese government.
They cited laws that allow the Chinese government to secretly demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for what officials call intelligence-gathering operations, said the New York Times.
