After recent news reports raised concerns about how TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, handles sensitive user information, two U.S. senators have reached out to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew seeking clarification on what they deemed as “misleading or inaccurate” responses regarding data storage and access.

In their letter addressed to Shou Zi Chew on Tuesday, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn referenced a Forbes report that disclosed TikTok’s storage of financial details, including Social Security numbers and tax IDs, of U.S. content creators who receive payments from the platform.

The storage was said to be on servers based in China, the Associated Press has reported.

The senators also highlighted a separate report from The New York Times published in late May.

According to the report, TikTok employees regularly shared user information, including driver’s license details of certain American users, through an internal messaging app called Lark.

This information was accessible to employees of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, located in Beijing.

Written by staff