TikTok acknowledged that its CEO was not completely honest in his statements to Congress. The company differentiated between the storage of data of ordinary users and U.S. content creators.
The video platform's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, had sworn before the House of Representatives that the Chinese app stored U.S. user data in Virginia and Singapore.
However, an investigation recently surfaced showing that the video app did store financial information of U.S. and European content creators on servers in China. This prompted the Senate to send a letter to the company and give it the opportunity to clarify the information.
In response, TikTok explained that there is a difference between "U.S. user data collected by the TikTok app" and the information creators provide to the platform so that they can be paid for the content they publish. The company also confirmed that the data from the first case is indeed stored in the United States and Singapore but declined to clarify the exact location where the latter information is stored.
#Tiktok agrees to storing American user data in China: Report https://t.co/QYEvpeSo8I pic.twitter.com/efuVG9sKcg
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) June 22, 2023
"We were asked about, and our testimony focused on, the protected user data collected in the app—not creator data. We stand by the statements made by our company executives to Congress," TikTok said in a letter to Senate leaders.
In its message, the company did not deny the information published in the Forbes investigation. In fact, he admitted that the media article "referenced certain creator data, such as signed contracts and related documents for U.S. creators who enter into a business relationship with TikTok, information that is collected outside of the standard app experience."
