TikTok CEO tries to quell lawmakers' fears over national security with 'Project Texas'

KHOU 11
Author: Adam Bennett, Sammy Turner
Published: 3:43 PM CDT March 23, 2023
Updated: 4:53 PM CDT March 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in Washington D.C. grilled TikTok's CEO on Thursday over concerns about national security amid nationwide calls to ban the widely popular social media app.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew spoke to lawmakers about the company's plan to protect Americans' data called Project Texas. The project would store all Americans' data collected by TikTok on limited-access servers run by Oracle, a major tech company based in Austin.

At Thursday's hearing, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce called the app a threat to national security and American teenagers.

Many lawmakers voiced concern that the Chinese government would be able to access the personal data of around 150 million American users. The app is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. Chew tried to quell any such fears by saying the company has built a firewall to seal American user data from Chinese access.

"Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action," Chew said. "The bottom line is this --  American data stored on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel."

"U.S. TikTok data is stored by default in Oracle service. Only vetted personnel operating in a new company called TikTok U.S. Data Security can control access to this data," he continued.

Chew's promise didn't seem to be enough for lawmakers as members of both parties continued calls for the app to be banned or restricted in the U.S. 

The Associated Press reports that the app has already been banned from official devices in Congress, the White House, the U.S. armed forces and more than half the states in the nation.

A group of TikTok influencers gathered outside the Capitol ahead of the hearing protesting the Biden Administration's threat to ban the app unless it divests from its Chinese owner.