ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) has stepped up efforts to separate its social media app TikTok from much of its Chinese operations, amid a US national security panel’s inquiry into the safety of the personal data it handles, people familiar with the matter said.
The Chinese technology company is seeking to provide assurances to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that personal data held by TikTok, which is widely popular with US teenagers, is stored securely in the US and would not be compromised by Chinese authorities, the sources said.
The committee is looking into ByteDance’s US$1 billion acquisition of social media app Musical.ly in 2017, which laid the foundations for TikTok’s rapid growth, Reuters reported earlier this month.
ByteDance’s response represents a key test of corporate China’s ability to operate businesses in the US that handle personal data.
The company started to separate TikTok operationally before the committee approached it last month, because it wanted some of its staff to focus on TikTok, the sources said.
It completed the separation of TikTok’s product and business development, marketing and legal teams from those of its Chinese social media app Douyin (抖音) in the third quarter of this year, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the company’s internal arrangements.
During the summer, it also hired an external consultant to carry out audits on the integrity of the personal data it stores, the sources added.
The company has said that US user data are stored entirely in the US, with a backup in Singapore.
It has also said that the Chinese government does not have any jurisdiction over TikTok content.
Following the approach by the committee, TikTok is making a new push to set up a team in Mountain View, California, that would oversee data management, the sources said.
The team would determine whether Chinese-based engineers should have access to TikTok’s database and monitor their activity, they said.
TikTok is also hiring more US engineers to reduce its reliance on staff in China, they added.
It is not clear how effective these changes would be in appeasing the committee.
A spokeswoman for the US Department of the Treasury, which chairs the committee, said it does not comment on information relating to specific cases.
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