by (Bloomberg) — Senior officials from the Justice Department and other agencies will hold closed-door briefings in the Senate this week to advance legislation that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. while being separated from its Chinese owner, of according to people familiar with the matter.
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The previously unreported briefings on Tuesday and Wednesday come as the lobbying battle over controversial TikTok legislation moves to the Senate after the unexpected passage of a House bill last week that would have forced the app sold or prohibited in the USA. .
The department’s push, led by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, is aimed at divesting the popular video-sharing app from its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd., as opposed to a total ban in the United States, it said. one of the people, who asked not. to be recognized as speaking about confidential matters.
Monaco and other national security officials are working behind the scenes with key lawmakers to pass legislation that would lead to TikTok being divested and possibly bought by US investors or an American entity, the person said.
The battle against TikTok represents one of many fronts in a broader campaign by the Justice Department that officials say is aimed at preventing China, Russia, Iran and other adversaries from using technology and data in illegal ways or harmful, especially when it comes to risks. the artificial intelligence.
“What we’ve seen is the asset our faces are looking for is not the brick-and-mortar institution,” Monaco said in an interview about data security efforts. “The data itself is the asset.”
Monaco and other national security officials warn that TikTok is subject to China’s national security laws that require data and algorithms to be turned over to the state, raising the possibility that Beijing could obtain layers of information on US users or the app. used to influence American politics.
TikTok’s answer
In response to materials that US officials have privately shared with lawmakers, TikTok released a document titled “TikTok’s Response to DOJ,” reviewed by Bloomberg.
The company disputed the claim that TikTok user data such as name, age, phone number, email, IP address and general location constituted a massive collection of sensitive information. The company said companies collect the information it has on users “regularly to provide access to online services.”
“Unlike some of its competitors, TikTok does not require users to reveal their real names, does not ask users about their employment or relationship status, and does not ask US users to reveal their precise geolocation information,” according to the document.
The company also said its algorithm for recommending content is stored on cloud servers maintained by its US partner, Oracle Corp., and any changes to it are reviewed and managed by personnel in its US business unit. “No governments – including China or the United States – are influencing TikTok’s algorithm,” the company said.
Why TikTok is facing a US ban on National Security: QuickTake
Efforts to separate TikTok from its Chinese parent have gained the most momentum in recent years since a failed bid by the Trump administration to ban the widely popular app, which has 170 million American users. The former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Steven Mnuchin, said last week that he is talking to potential investors to acquire the app.
TikTok plans to exhaust all legal challenges if the latest US legislation targeting the app becomes law, Bloomberg reported.
Under President Donald Trump, the US government oversaw a deal under which ByteDance would sell its American assets to a group led by Oracle. But ByteDance refused and the deal collapsed.
The bill passed by the House calls for divestment within six months, but several senators, including Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, have said that may not be enough time to find a buyer. Other senators have said they want to see the bill go through a full amendment process and be open to changes to improve it. The White House also has “technical assistance” available that aims to change the bill from the House-passed version. Any such changes could slow its progress through Congress.
Data Security Regulations
The Justice Department is also developing its first-ever regulations to prevent China and others from buying sensitive personal data about US citizens from commercial brokers as part of a White House executive order issued last month. Monaco said in the interview about the data security regulations that the aim is to close a loophole that allows escorts to buy certain categories of sensitive US personal and government data.
“I see this as part of a set of tools that we have to address an emerging national security threat, which is increasingly data with the national security and military and intelligence apparatus of adversary nations,” said Monaco. “We are trying to be very deliberate and calibrated in addressing the national security threat without having unintended consequences for a wide range of legitimate financial activity and commercial transactions.”
This month, Monaco and DOJ leaders warned companies at a legal conference in San Francisco that they will not be able to hide behind the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to avoid prosecution when illegal activity occurs.
On artificial intelligence, the department filed its first legal brief this month supporting a lawsuit against a US property management software company for allegedly using pricing algorithms to artificially inflate apartment rents.
–With assistance from Jamie Tarabay.
(Updates with multiple briefings in the second paragraph, TikTok’s response.)
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