East Michigan News

Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the House Select Committee on China has released a statement regarding the ongoing divestiture process involving TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance. The statement addresses concerns about national security and compliance with new legislative requirements.

Moolenaar said, “ByteDance has shown time and again that it is a bad actor, and the Chinese Communist Party’s ultimate goal is to see America divided and weakened. That is why, on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, Congress required ByteDance to divest control of TikTok. Transitioning to a majority American-owned entity would mark an important step in that process that could mitigate some of the ByteDance threat depending on the details, but divestment was not the law’s only requirement. The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance. As Chairman of the China Select Committee, I will be conducting full oversight over this agreement, starting with an urgent briefing I have requested from the Administration. Furthermore, I look forward to hosting the leadership of the new TikTok entity at a Select Committee hearing next year."

Congress had previously passed legislation requiring ByteDance to relinquish control over TikTok due to concerns about data privacy and influence from foreign governments. The law also imposes restrictions preventing collaboration between ByteDance and any future owner of TikTok regarding key technology such as recommendation algorithms, as well as barring operational connections between them.

Moolenaar indicated he would oversee compliance with these requirements through committee hearings and briefings with relevant parties.