US senators question TikTok hiring of high-level staff from China’s ByteDance
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TikTok recently hired several high-level executives from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - Two US senators said they were investigating video-sharing app TikTok’s reported decision recently to hire several high-level executives from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican senator Marsha Blackburn said in a letter to TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew that the hirings further call “into question the independence of TikTok’s operations and the security of its US users’ information”.
“The personnel changes give the impression that TikTok is attempting to preserve ByteDance’s influence over TikTok while avoiding suspicion,” the senators wrote, asking for a detailed account of security protocols being imposed on ByteDance employees who transfer to the US from China.
TikTok said it welcomed the chance to provide senators facts about its hiring practices.
“In a large global organisation, it is not uncommon for employees to work on different products or geographies over the course of their careers,” a spokesman said.
TikTok is used by more than 150 million Americans and has faced calls from US lawmakers for a nationwide ban over concerns about possible Chinese government influence.
Efforts to give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok have stalled in Congress.
Senator 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.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who sought unanimous consent to win approval for legislation to ban TikTok in May, plans to force a vote on the issue later in 2023.
“We need to come back to it and we need to ban it,” he told Reuters in September. “(TikTok) has hired lobbyists by the bazillion, they are in the halls constantly and they have been able to stop progress.”
In 2020, then President Donald Trump sought to bar new downloads of TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, a unit of Tencent, but a series of court decisions blocked the bans from taking effect.
TikTok is fighting a ban by the state of Montana
