TikTok collaborates with the Chinese government? “There is no evidence.” The company issued a statement following the Council’s decision

The Digitization Council, consisting of 20 experts, passed a resolution last week calling on the government to order officials to remove equipment purchased with public funds. Of course, this is only a recommendation that is not binding. The Government Plenipotentiary for Cybersecurity indicated that “The Council, taking into account both media reports and applicable regulations, warns against storing sensitive data used by the state administration on a device with TikTok installed”. Earlier, the body indicated that it “shares the concerns that Chinese technology companies, including the TikTok app, can support the Chinese authorities and their intelligence services in collecting huge amounts of data around the worldRecall that TikTok has already been removed from devices and EU officials.

The Digitization Council advises politicians to remove TikTok. There is the company’s answer

Such a recommendation is of course a blow to TikTok, which – not surprisingly – does not agree with the opinion of the Digitization Council. “We believe this opinion is based on fundamentally misconceptions about our company’s ownership structure and how we provide data” – we read in the statement sent to Gazeta.pl. The company assures that China does not own TikTok or its parent companies as they are registered outside of China. It was pointed out that ByteDance (the company that owns TikTok) is not owned by China. 60 percent of shares in it are held by global investment funds such as Sequoia Capital or SoftBank, 20 percent belongs to the owners, and 20 percent to smaller ones and employees in stock options. Moreover, the company and its founders are permanently located in . Business However, ByteDance is a Chinese company founded in Beijing in 2012.

In the statement sent to us, it was emphasized that TikTok is in no way dependent on the Chinese government, nor does it share data with Chinese authorities. To confirm these words, TikTok explains that it cooperates with organizations that control their activities. The company also declares further willingness to cooperate in order to fully meet the formal requirements. On the other hand, however, he admits that to make TikTok use “consistent, enjoyable and safe” the company may allow certain remote workers limited access to user data outside of Europe. However, this access is to be limited to those who need it to do their job and is subject to a series of stringent security checks and is limited in time. “Policy makers and regulators in Europe are rightly focused on understanding whether TikTok poses any real security risk. However, no evidence has yet been presented.” – we read in the statement.