TikTok backs out of US House meeting to avoid kids safety questions

TikTok, Meta, YouTube and Snap Inc have been defendants this year in closely watched national litigation alleging that the top social media platforms were designed to addict minors. — Pexels

TikTok dropped out of an upcoming meeting with the US House Select Committee on China on national security issues, saying it couldn’t participate because of unrelated child-safety litigation, the leader of the panel said.

The company is "refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices,” said US Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, and the chairman of the committee.

The bipartisan congressional roundtable, months in the making, was set to take place Sept 15 and focus on lawmakers’ questions about TikTok’s US business that was spun out earlier this year from China-based ByteDance Ltd to majority-American owners under a national security deal. The US company had agreed to send its chief security officer, Will Farrell, to discuss how the new venture is safeguarding TikTok’s algorithm and Americans’ data from Chinese influence, but backed out on Aug 27, Moolenaar said.

The day before TikTok’s decision, Meta Platforms Inc had reached an US$18bil (RM72.71bil) settlement with state attorneys general over claims that its products had hooked and harmed a generation of young users. Meta then swiftly launched a pressure campaign to push TikTok and Google’s YouTube to join it in adopting stronger, industrywide protections for teens across social media. Neither company has responded publicly to those demands. TikTok did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

"They claimed that in light of Meta’s settlement with state attorneys general, they wouldn’t be able to answer questions on child-safety issues,” Moolenaar said on Sept 2 in an interview. But no part of the roundtable was meant to focus on kids, he said. The intent has instead been to assure the public that TikTok is following a national security law aimed at protecting Americans from foreign adversaries, including China, and increase transparency around how the app is operating under its new ownership.

The cancellation for another reason "raises serious questions on the algorithm, access to Americans’ data, what kind of influence the CCP continues to have with TikTok,” Moolenaar said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. "They had an opportunity to inspire confidence that the law was being met and could have simply at the roundtable said, ‘By advice of counsel, we are not able to answer questions, due to legal proceedings, on child safety issues.’ But the fact that they cancelled, to me, really undermines their credibility.”

Moolenaar said it was unclear whether the directive to drop out had come from TikTok US, which oversees its safety and security efforts, or from ByteDance, which still owns a 19.9% stake in the company’s US operations and controls the most valuable parts of its business. That "goes to the heart of the concerns that remain about TikTok – its ownership, its loyalties, its commitment to the American people,” he said.

TikTok, Meta, YouTube and Snap Inc have been defendants this year in closely watched national litigation alleging that the top social media platforms were designed to addict minors. The companies maintain that their products were not built to encourage compulsive use, and that they have protections in place to prevent it.

Though TikTok and its peers have reached confidential settlements in several of these cases, they still face thousands brought by young plaintiffs and their families and public school districts across the country. Numerous state attorneys general also are pursuing action against TikTok. Some states also are targeting Google and Snap.

In August, TikTok and ByteDance agreed to pay US$400mil (RM1.62bil) to resolve a separate Biden-era lawsuit by the Justice Department accusing the popular app of collecting data on children in violation of an online privacy law. The 2024 suit alleged the company let millions of children under the age of 13 create accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent while making it difficult for parents to request the deletion of those accounts. The settlement requires court approval.

Earlier this week, TikTok and YouTube were absent from an event convened by the Trump administration’s Office of the Surgeon General on combating the harms of excessive screen use in American children. Safety chiefs from Meta and Snap were present, drawing even more attention to those missing in action.

"We’re disappointed that they backed out and we’re going to continue to work toward having these questions answered,” Moolenaar said on Sept 2. The committee is trying to schedule another gathering before the end of the year and plans to again invite the new TikTok US CEO, Adam Presser. "TikTok’s missed another opportunity to be transparent and open, and that doesn’t speak well for TikTok.” – Bloomberg

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今年，TikTok、Meta、YouTube 和 Snap Inc. 都卷入了备受关注的全国性诉讼，这些诉讼指控这些顶级社交媒体平台的设计目的是让未成年人上瘾。—— Pexels

据该委员会主席称，TikTok退出了即将与美国众议院中国问题特别委员会举行的关于国家安全问题的会议，称其因与此无关的儿童安全诉讼而无法参加。

美国众议员、密歇根州共和党人、委员会主席约翰·穆勒纳尔表示，该公司“以自身希望避免对其儿童安全措施进行更广泛的审查为由，拒绝出庭作证”。

这场筹备数月的两党国会圆桌会议原定于9月15日举行，重点讨论议员们对TikTok美国业务的质询。TikTok美国业务于今年早些时候从中国字节跳动有限公司分拆出来，根据一项国家安全协议，该业务的控股股东为美国人。据穆勒纳尔称，这家美国公司曾同意派遣其首席安全官威尔·法瑞尔出席会议，讨论新公司如何保护TikTok的算法和美国用户的数据免受中国的影响，但该公司于8月27日反悔了。

在TikTok做出决定的前一天，Meta Platforms Inc.与各州总检察长达成180亿美元（约合727.1亿令吉）的和解协议，此前有指控称其产品让一代年轻用户沉迷其中并受到伤害。随后，Meta迅速发起了一场施压运动，敦促TikTok和谷歌旗下的YouTube效仿，在社交媒体领域采取更强有力的行业保护措施，以保护青少年用户。这两家公司均未公开回应这些要求。TikTok也未回复多次置评请求。

“他们声称，鉴于Meta与各州总检察长达成了和解，他们无法回答有关儿童安全的问题，”穆勒纳尔在9月2日的一次采访中说道。但他表示，圆桌会议的任何环节都不是为了关注儿童问题。相反，会议的目的是向公众保证TikTok遵守了旨在保护美国公民免受包括中国在内的外国敌对势力侵害的国家安全法，并提高该应用在新东家领导下运营的透明度。

穆勒纳尔表示，取消TikTok活动的另一个原因“引发了人们对算法、美国用户数据访问权限以及中共对TikTok的持续影响力等方面的严重质疑”。他指的是中国共产党。“他们本有机会让人们相信他们遵守了法律，他们本可以在圆桌会议上简单地说：‘根据法律顾问的建议，由于法律程序，我们无法回答有关儿童安全的问题。’但他们取消活动的做法，在我看来，确实损害了他们的信誉。”

穆勒纳尔表示，目前尚不清楚退出TikTok的指令是来自负责其安全保障工作的TikTok美国分公司，还是来自仍持有该公司美国业务19.9%股份并控制其最有价值业务的字节跳动公司。他说道：“这触及了人们对TikTok的核心担忧——它的所有权、忠诚度以及对美国人民的承诺。”

今年，TikTok、Meta、YouTube 和 Snap Inc. 都卷入了备受瞩目的全国性诉讼，这些诉讼指控这些顶级社交媒体平台的设计旨在让未成年人上瘾。这些公司坚称，他们的产品并非旨在鼓励用户过度使用，并且他们已采取保护措施来防止这种情况发生。

尽管TikTok及其同行已在部分案件中达成保密和解，但仍面临来自全国各地年轻原告及其家人和公立学区提起的数千起诉讼。许多州的检察长也正在对TikTok提起诉讼。一些州还将矛头指向了谷歌和Snap。

今年8月，TikTok及其母公司字节跳动同意支付4亿美元（约合16.2亿令吉）以和解美国司法部在拜登执政时期提起的另一项诉讼。该诉讼指控TikTok违反网络隐私法，收集儿童数据。这项2024年提起的诉讼称，TikTok允许数百万13岁以下儿童在未经父母知情或同意的情况下创建账户，并设置障碍，使父母难以要求删除这些账户。该和解协议尚需法院批准。

本周早些时候，TikTok和YouTube缺席了特朗普政府卫生局局长办公室召开的关于应对美国儿童过度使用电子屏幕危害的活动。Meta和Snap的安全主管出席了会议，这更加凸显了这两家公司的缺席。

“我们对他们的退出感到失望，我们将继续努力，争取解答这些问题，”穆勒纳尔9月2日表示。该委员会正试图在年底前安排另一次会议，并计划再次邀请TikTok美国新任首席执行官亚当·普雷瑟出席。“TikTok又一次错失了展现透明度和开放性的机会，这对TikTok来说并非好事。”——彭博社

马克龙告诉法国学生，即使在爱丽舍宫，手机也要上交。

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