As a commitment to improving TikTok's stand in the middle of national security scrutiny, the General Counsel of ByteDance will be shifting to another position and will no longer oversee the company's relations with the United States government.
Indian mobile users browses through the Chinese owned video-sharing 'Tik Tok' app on a smartphones in Amritsar on June 30, 2020. - TikTok on June 30 denied sharing information on Indian users with the Chinese government, after New Delhi banned the wildly popular app citing national security and privacy concerns. "TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese Government," said the company, which is owned by China's ByteDance. NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images
(Photo : NARINDER NANU/AFP via Getty Images) Indian mobile users browses through the Chinese owned video-sharing 'Tik Tok' app on a smartphones in Amritsar on June 30, 2020. - TikTok on June 30 denied sharing information on Indian users with the Chinese government, after New Delhi banned the wildly popular app citing national security and privacy concerns.
Shifting TikTok's Approach
TikTok has been in the eyes of United States officials because of national security scrutiny for years, with both the Trump and Biden administrations. After several meetings and explanations, the company made a new decision in an effort to avoid the application being banned in the country.
Executive positions of the company were reshuffled, including General Counsel Erich Andersen. Based on a report from South China Morning Post, he was in charge of working with United States officials.
He stated that the approach of the company will be shifted as TikTok had been committed in private conversations with the Biden administration to review foreign investments in businesses in the country.
Andersen added, "What we learned, unfortunately the hard way, this fall was it was necessary for us to accelerate our own explanation of what we were prepared to do and the level of commitments on the national security process."
The former general counsel was part of the group of the company that tried to find a compromise to keep the application available in the country while protecting the data of the citizens at the same time. Andersen will be working instead with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US division.
A TikTok Spokesperson said in a statement that "the scope of Erich's role has changed to allow him to focus more deeply on the company's legal, trust, and safety work." No confirmations yet from the company regarding who will replace Andersen in the role.
The New York Times reported that TikTok has been talking with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for the last two years. This was an effort to address questions and concerns regarding the company's relationship with Chinese authorities and harvesting 100 million US citizens' data into the government.
Previously, ByteDance's TikTok was confident that the US officials could come up with a resolution after discussing and submitting a 90-page proposal in August. But as this scrutiny becomes longer and longer, the company's chance of being banned in the country is getting bigger.
CNBC reported that this is a $1.5 billion effort of the company, with guidance from members of Congress, academic researchers, think tank writers, and more. University of North Carolina Center on Technology Policy Director and Co-Author Matt Perault stated that this will give TikTok a chance to present and hear their side as they put forward specifics.
He added, "The debate should be grounded in the realities of the planned operations rather than in speculation about what those plans may be.
