TikTok pulls out of House committee meeting to dodge child safety questions, chairman says
The chair of the House Select Committee on China says TikTok backed out of a planned public roundtable, citing a wish to avoid scrutiny over child safety practices. The committee says it will try to reschedule the session before year's end.
The chairman of the US House Select Committee on China, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), says TikTok has withdrawn from a public roundtable that had been scheduled for this month. According to Moolenaar, the committee had negotiated in good faith with TikTok to bring the company's chief security officer before lawmakers to answer questions about potential Chinese government access to American users' data and about how the TikTok algorithm works.
In a statement issued Thursday, Moolenaar said TikTok is now refusing to appear, citing a desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moolenaar told Bloomberg in an interview that TikTok reneged on its commitment on August 27th — one day after Meta reached a sweeping settlement with state attorneys general over child safety issues and publicly called on TikTok and YouTube to follow its lead. All three platforms still face numerous pending lawsuits centered on their child safety practices.
According to Moolenaar, TikTok representatives said that in light of Meta's settlement, they would not be able to answer questions on child-safety issues — even though, he said, the roundtable was not intended to focus on that topic.
Committee plans to reschedule
Moolenaar said the committee will keep working in good faith to ensure TikTok executives publicly address its questions about the company's operations and safeguards, in line with requirements under the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. He expressed hope this would happen before the end of the year.
That law is the one that briefly led to a US ban on TikTok before enforcement was repeatedly delayed under President Donald Trump. A deal closed in January that placed TikTok's US service under a new entity, theoretically addressing the security concerns cited in the law. Even so, committee members retained concerns after the deal closed, with Moolenaar saying at the time that TikTok would need to answer directly to the committee about Chinese government influence over the algorithm and protection of US user data.
