Crenshaw, Gottheimer Urge Commerce Department to Block TikTok from Transferring U.S. Data to CCP-Linked Parent Company

Representatives Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas) and Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) — both members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence — led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending a letter Thursday to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo requesting that the department add ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to its foreign entity list. In doing so, the Biden administration would prevent the transfer of American software to a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

“There are serious issues with access to U.S. user data, and the relationship between ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” the letter reads. “Despite misrepresenting their relationship in sworn testimony before multiple Congressional committees, TikTok’s software engineering personnel ultimately report to ByteDance leadership in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Moreover, any ByteDance date that is viewed, stored, or that passes through China is subject to the laws of China, a one-party authoritarian state hostile to American democracy.”

Congress did not ultimately pass legislation addressing the threat TikTok poses after a series of hearings last year, despite reports showing that the social-media app allowed its engineers and executives in China to access American user data. But Crenshaw believes the Department of Commerce can take unilateral action to safeguard Americans’ privacy.

“Unfortunately, China continues to infiltrate our private lives and poison the minds of our youth. Our threats to shut down TikTok have not stopped them from continuing to prey on the American people and collect our data,” he told National Review. “This is unacceptable and must be swiftly addressed. I support legislation to ban TikTok, full stop. But I am also calling on the Biden administration to take immediate action to protect users across our nation.”

In their letter, Crenshaw and Gottheimer wrote that the Commerce Department has enacted similar guardrails against CCP spying in the past.

“The addition of ByteDance to the BIS Entity List would be an important step in shielding U.S. users from the worst excesses of these applications, while preventing the further development and proliferation of these security concerns,” they wrote. “Most notably, your department took similar action with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) and many of its non-U.S. affiliates in 2019.”

Gottheimer, for his part, used similarly strong language about the threat TikTok poses to American security.

“In the hands of the Chinese Communist party, the data TikTok has collected is an enormous asset to one of our greatest enemies and their malign activities,” he told NR. “By preventing the transfer of U.S. software and technology to ByteDance, the U.S. can fight back against TikTok’s information invasion against America’s families.”

TikTok has disputed claims that the CCP accesses American user data, and its response to the bipartisan letter was no different. A spokesman told NR that the arguments Crenshaw and Gottheimer made are inaccurate.

“Not only does this letter misrepresent the facts and the law, it also ignores the industry leading work we’ve done to safeguard protected U.S. user data,” TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek wrote in an email. “We’ve engaged in good faith with Congress and relevant agencies through the CFIUS process for over four years and we continue to do so.”

Buzzfeed News obtained audio clips in 2022 from internal TikTok meetings showing that U.S. user data has been accessed from within China numerous times. In response, a group of senators wrote the company a letter addressed to TikTok chief executive officer Shou Chew asking him to address concerns about data security.

In response, Chew wrote to the senators and argued, among other things, that the article “contains allegations that are incorrect and not supported by facts.” He pointed to the corporation’s “Project Texas” initiative, an effort by the company to, as Chew put it, “make substantive progress toward compliance with a final agreement with the U.S. Government that will fully safeguard user data and U.S. national security interests.”

He wrote that, while China-based employees “can have access to TikTok U.S. user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols,” the company has worked toward revising its internal policies as part of Project Texas. Chew also asserted in his letter that the CCP has not requested American user data and that TikTok would not provide that data if asked.

Several national-security experts, alongside the bipartisan group of lawmakers, are concerned about the risks involved with the social-media app. Matt Pottinger, former Deputy National Security Adviser, said TikTok poses a unique threat that the U.S. has not faced before — a combination of privacy issues and the app’s use as a tool for spreading propaganda.

“It is well known that China’s government exploits Chinese companies to access Americans’ data, including for purposes of espionage. Even more important in the case of TikTok, however, is how China’s government exploits Chinese companies for overseas political interference through propaganda, misinformation, and censorship,” Pottinger said. “This is why TikTok is a more powerful tool for influencing our democratic politics than any foreign adversary in history could ever have dreamed of. I commend Reps. Crenshaw and Gottheimer for their leadership and hope the Commerce Department takes action.”

Michael Sobolik, senior fellow in Indo-Pacific studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, agreed with Pottinger’s assessment.

“TikTok isn’t like other social-media companies. Its parent company, ByteDance, is controlled by the Chinese Communist party,” he said. “Moreover, TikTok has censored information deemed sensitive by Beijing. It is a conduit of CCP-directed disinformation and propaganda that directly reaches the phones of over 150 million Americans. Policymakers should take steps to degrade TikTok’s ability to function in America. Congressman Crenshaw and Congressman GHottheimer have identified a creative way to do just that. The Department of Commerce should take these bipartisan suggestions seriously.”