Immigration officials have questioned more than 30 TikTok employees who traveled to the United States. Forbes Reports. According to the report, some employees of TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance were taken aside by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and detained for further questioning. Many of the culled workers are Chinese citizens.
Some of the people interviewed work in machine learning or data engineering. CBP agents have asked them about their access to US users’ TikTok data. The workers were also asked about the location of TikTok’s U.S.-based data centers and their own individual involvement in Project Texas, a massive corporate restructuring project aimed at sealing off U.S. user data from ByteDance’s workers in China.
The CBP questioning also touched on a more personal area. Accordingly Forbes, TikTok employees were asked whether they were members of the Chinese Communist Party and were also asked to provide information about their schooling and political affiliations in China. A source told Forbes that CBP agents have a “specific, printed list of questions” that they use to interview TikTok and ByteDance employees.
Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok, has been subjected to similar questioning. During a congressional hearing in January, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) repeatedly asked Chew – a Singaporean – whether he was a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
In multiple congressional testimony, Chew has emphasized that U.S. users’ data is stored in the United States and is not accessible to ByteDance employees in China. Efforts to completely seal off US user data began in 2022 as part of Project Texas, which TikTok has described as an “unprecedented initiative” aimed at making every American on TikTok feel safe, confident that their data are safe and the platform is free from external influences.” But several reports, including one published by Assets pointed out earlier this month that Project Texas did not fully restrict ByteDance’s access to US users’ data.
As Forbes notes that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – which includes the head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP – has been investigating ByteDance since 2019. In 2023, the committee recommended that the US ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells the app. Last week, President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes legislation that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance divests from it within a year.
CBP and TikTok did not respond The Verge’s Request for comments.