Sen. Josh Hawley has spoken to a TikTok whistleblower, who charges the firm's data protections are weaker than claimed.
Hawley writes: "The whistleblower describes TikTok’s access controls on U.S. data as 'superficial' at best, where they exist at all. As an example, he describes how TikTok and ByteDance employees — including members of the Chinese Communist Party known to be on ByteDance’s payroll — can switch between Chinese and U.S. data with nothing more than the click of a button using a proprietary tool called Dorado... In his words, “[i]t’s just like a light switch.
The whistleblower told Hawley's office, per the letter: "I have seen first-hand China-based engineers flipping over to non-China datasets and creating scheduled tasks to backup, aggregate, and analyze data," adding that "TikTok and ByteDance are functionally the same company."and other Chinese companies are popular in Congress right now.
TikTok has consistently maintained it keeps U.S. user data secure and that it is committed to a strong CFIUS deal. Hawley has been supporting an outright ban on the app, while others in Congress have proposed less direct approaches that could keep the popular video app alive in the U.S.
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