House Republicans say TikTok made misleading claims in briefings on data handling, but the company itself says that isn’t the case.
House Republicans said Wednesday that House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and his staff failed to disclose that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies relied on inaccurate responses by app developer TikTok, even though the company said the briefings were based on incomplete information, The Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.
Republicans said the Oversight Committee has been briefed by TikTok on government technology security.
Here’s what we know:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, used this technology to collect and analyze data about illegal immigration.
The company told the Oversight Committee that it hadn’t been involved in the government’s use of the app and it would not be able to speak on the matter, The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the company multiple times but did not receive a response, nor did the company respond to a request for comment.
Gowdy and House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said that a TikTok spokesperson told them that the company was not involved in the government’s use of the app.
“On June 16, 2018, TikTok informed the Committee that it was unable to discuss the matters,” Gowdy and Maloney said in a statement. “A TikTok representative told that Committee that the company was not a consumer of DHS user data or involved in DHS’s use of the app.”
“Congress has an obligation to investigate government’s actions and how they are carried out. The Oversight Committee has been briefed by TikTok about its use of U.S. consumer data collected with the Government’s permission, and yet the Committee has not received a complete briefing or been able to access the underlying documents.”
That doesn’t sit well with the company’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Zell, though.
“TikTok does not believe that the Committee’s briefing was based on accurate information, and has asked for a briefing on this matter,�
