U.S. House Committee Votes To Release Transcript On TikTok Threats Amid Legal Battle

U.S. House Committee Votes To Release Transcript On TikTok Threats Amid Legal Battle

On Thursday, a U.S. House committee voted to release a transcript from a closed-door hearing in March, which discussed threats posed by TikTok to the Justice Department. This move aims to support the department's defense of a law that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest the app's U.S. assets.

ByteDance, TikTok, and a group of TikTok creators have filed lawsuits to block the law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in April. The law could result in a ban on the app, used by 170 million Americans, if the company fails to divest by January 19, 2025.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee chair, stated that the Justice Department requested the Energy and Commerce Committee to review the transcript from the classified March hearing to assist in their litigation. Rodgers noted that lawmakers were briefed by the intelligence community about the dangers posed by foreign-controlled applications like TikTok, which can exploit and weaponize Americans' data.

Despite the vote, a committee spokesperson confirmed that there are no plans to make the transcript public. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Rodgers emphasized that China has shown no intention of relinquishing control over applications like TikTok since the law was passed. She asserted that this further demonstrates China's use of these applications in harmful ways against the American people.

TikTok, which also declined to comment, previously criticized the legislative process as secretive and rushed, claiming that the bill's authors pushed it forward under such conditions intentionally.

A U.S. court is scheduled to hold oral arguments on September 16 regarding the legal challenges. The Justice Department is expected to respond to the lawsuits by July 26.

At the classified hearing in March, the Justice Department suggested that its legal position would be stronger if lawmakers ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok, according to a document reported by Reuters. An unclassified one-page document from the briefing indicated that TikTok poses significant national security concerns due to its collection of sensitive data. It stated that Chinese ownership could allow the PRC (People's Republic of China) to access data on millions of U.S. users and control the software on their devices.

A previous attempt to ban TikTok by then-President Donald Trump in late 2020 was blocked by the courts.