Chew Shou Zi, the Singaporean CEO of TikTok, was grilled again by members of the U.S. Congress in the early hours of Feb. 1 (Singapore time) over supposed links to China and the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
In a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis", the spotlight was suddenly turned on Chew, with Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) turning up the heat.
Cotton asked Chew whether he has "ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party", The Hill reported.
Perhaps somewhat befuddled, Chew responded: "Senator, I'm Singaporean, no."
"Have you ever been associated with or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?” asked Cotton.
“No, senator, again, I’m Singaporean,” said Chew.
Wall Street Journal report on Project Texas
Other senators also referred to a recent Wall Street Journal article that claimed TikTok is "struggling" to protect the data of its U.S. users.
Published a couple of days before the Senate hearing, the WSJ noted that TikTok had poured US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) into Project Texas, a standalone unit overseeing U.S. data on the app, intended to "wall off" U.S. user data from passing through China.
However, among other things, it claimed that Project Texas managers sometimes "instruct workers to share data with colleagues in other parts of the company and with ByteDance workers without going through official channels".
Citing documents seen by the WSJ and unnamed "current and former employees", such data may include private information, such as a user's IP address, email and birthday.
John Cornyn (R-Texas) referred to the report when questioning Chew, but the TikTok head said "there are many things about that article that are inaccurate".
Previous Congress hearing
Chew grabbed headlines on Mar. 23, 2023, when he testified before Congress in a hearing on possible influence by China's government on TikTok and its alleged detrimental effects on youth’s mental health.
Certain moments, such as Chew explaining what seemed like simple technical points to U.S. representatives, went viral on social media and also, naturally, on TikTok.
Chew also pledged that TikTok would safeguard U.S. user data upon the completion of Project Texas, and added: "American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore in the past, and access of this is on an as-required basis by our engineers globally."
U.S. user data accessed by employees in China?
However, investigative articles following the hearing claimed that U.S. user data had indeed been stored in China.
A Forbes article in May 2023 claimed that "highly sensitive financial and personal information about [star TikTok creators] and third parties has been stored in China", citing documents seen by Forbes that were obtained by "multiple sources across different parts of the company".
A New York Times article in May 2023 also claimed that sensitive data of TikTok users, including Americans, was shared by employees around the world, including those in China, through an internal messaging platform.
This prompted two U.S. Senators, Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) to write a letter to TikTok about the seeming discrepancy.
"These reports directly contradict statements you and other TikTok representatives have made to the public and under oath before Congress about where TikTok stores U.S. user data and the ability of employees in China to access that information," the letter said.
In response, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said: "We remain confident in the accuracy of our testimony and responses to Congress."
In a longer response in June 2023, TikTok said, according to Forbes:
"There is a difference between "U.S. user data collected by the TikTok app" and information that creators give to TikTok so they can be paid for content they post. The former is stored in TikTok’s data centers in the U.S. and Singapore, TikTok said. It did not explicitly state where the latter is stored."
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Top image from SenTomCotton/X