TikTok says it offered the US government a “kill switch” to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This disclosure comes as TikTok begins its legal battle against legislation that will ban the app in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law was introduced due to fears that TikTok might share US user data with the Chinese government<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, TikTok and ByteDance have denied the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both companies urge the courts to overturn this law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They said: “This law is a radical departure from this country\u2019s tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n TikTok claims the US government refused to engage in serious settlement talks after 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is despite significant concessions, including the “kill switch” offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This would have given the government authority to shut down the platform if TikTok failed to follow certain rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2022, TikTok proposed a draft “National Security Agreement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It included adequately funding its data protection units and ensuring that ByteDance had no access to US users’ data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If these conditions were breached, the “kill switch” could have been activated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a letter first reported by the Washington Post addressed to the US DOJ, TikTok’s lawyer alleges the government ceased negotiations after the proposed new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter, dated April 1, 2024, also claims the US government ignored requests for further negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It accuses the government of not responding to TikTok’s invitation to visit and inspect its Dedicated Transparency Center in Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear arguments on lawsuits filed by TikTok, ByteDance, and TikTok users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legislation signed by President Joe Biden in April mandates ByteDance must divest TikTok’s US assets<\/a><\/strong> by January next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it does not do this, it faces a ban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Need Career Advice? <\/strong>Get employment skills advice at all levels of your career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n TikTok denies sharing foreign users’ data with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It calls the legislation an “unconstitutional ban that infringes on US free speech rights”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It asserts US data remains within the country and is overseen by American company Oracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is under a deal known as Project Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, a Wall Street Journal investigation in January 2024 found some data was still being shared between TikTok in the US and ByteDance in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, a US government official told the Washington Post: “the solution proposed by the parties at the time would be insufficient to address the serious national security risks presented.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n They said: “While we have consistently engaged with the company about our concerns and potential solutions, it became clear that divestment from its foreign ownership was and remains necessary.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow us on <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>X<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TikTok has said it offered the US government a “kill switch” to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":61659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1065,3],"tags":[546],"class_list":["post-61618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-business-news","category-business-news","tag-tiktok"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whatjobs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}TikTok: “This law is a radical departure from this country\u2019s tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down.”<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n