US Marches Ahead with TikTok Bill — Retail Bum

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to march ahead with legislation that will seek to address national security concerns associated with the use of the TikTok app, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said.

McCarthy’s remarks come days after TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before a House Committee for five hours, assuaging lawmakers’ concerns that the app’s data could potentially be made accessible to the Chinese government.

Republican Representative Neal Dunn pointed to an incident report that showed China-based employees had improperly accessed the user data of American journalists.

Chew went on to defend the incident as an internal investigation and mentioned that ByteDance no longer employed those employees. However, his defense fell on deaf ears and was cut off.

ByteDance has reportedly spent $1.5 billion on improving data security under “Project Texas,” which employs 1,500 people. It has also contracted Oracle to store the data of U.S. users.

Unfortunately for TikTok, Chew’s assurances and promises did little to address Congress’ concerns.

“The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” McCarthy said on Twitter on Sunday.