// THE VERGE — MOBILE & WEB
Congressman says TikTok backed out of a meeting to avoid child safety questions
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The reversal reportedly came one day after Meta’s sweeping settlement.
The reversal reportedly came one day after Meta’s sweeping settlement.
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TikTok backed out of a congressional committee’s “public roundtable” set for this month over concerns it would be asked about child safety practices, the chair of the committee said.
After negotiating “in good faith” to bring TikTok’s chief security officer before the House Select Committee on China to answer questions about Chinese government access to Americans’ data and the TikTok algorithm, Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) said in a statement Thursday that the company reversed course. “Now, TikTok is refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices,” Moolenaar wrote. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok reneged on its commitment on August 27th, Moolenaar told Bloomberg in an interview — a day after Meta reached its sweeping settlement with state attorneys general and called on TikTok and YouTube to follow suit. All three of those tech platforms still have many pending suits focused on their child safety practices. “They claimed that in light of Meta’s settlement with state attorneys general, they wouldn’t be able to answer questions on child-safety issues,” Moolenaar told Bloomberg, even though he said the meeting was not set to focus on that topic.