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    TikTok CEO Says It Wasn’t ‘Espionage’ When ByteDance Employees Monitored Journalists

    During Thursday’s House hearing, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced a barrage of questions over concerns that data collected on US users may be vulnerable to China’s scrutiny.

    In particular, Chew’s answer to one of those questions probably dug the company’s hole even deeper when it comes to building trust with Washington.

    quote reporting from Forbeslater confirmed by the company itself, Florida Rep. Neal Dunn asked Chew if TikTok parent company ByteDance has been spying on US citizens. Chew replied, “I don’t think espionage is the right way to describe it.”

    In December, TikTok admitted that ByteDance employees used the app to track the location of journalists who reported critically of the company via their IP addresses. Four ByteDance employees, both in the US and China, were fired for accessing the data in an apparent attempt to identify sources leaking internal company information to reporters.

    “The public trust that we have built through tremendous efforts will be significantly undermined by the misconduct of a few individuals,” said Liang Rubo, CEO of ByteDance, in an internal email. edited by Emily Baker-White, one of the audited reporters. “I think this situation will be a lesson to all of us.”

    The brief exchange is likely one of many moments that further undermine trust in TikTok, despite the company’s sweeping campaign to portray itself as transparent and accountable. That effort, known as Project Texas, is a massive $1.5 billion corporate reorganization that will eventually move US user data to domestic servers overseen by US software giant Oracle by the end of the year.

    TikTok is also running a parallel PR campaign, recruiting influencers, courting journalists and spreading her message via a proprietary app ahead of Thursday’s hearing.

    Whether those measures will have any impact on TikTok’s tense relationship with the US government remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look likely. With the FBI and DOJ reportedly investigating the incident involving ByteDance monitoring US journalists, the company faces an even steeper climb to improve its image.

    Read more about the TikTok hearing on TechCrunch

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