TikTok Will Not Attend U.S. House Public Hearing

    TikTok has declined to participate in a public hearing planned for September before the U.S. House of Representatives’ select committee on China. Committee Chair John Moolenaar said the decision was intended to avoid broader questions about child safety rules. The platform did not immediately comment on the allegation.    The committee had been in talks with the company to hear from TikTok’s chief security officer. The hearing was expected to address the Chinese government’s potential access to Americans’ data and the platform’s recommendation algorithm. According to Moolenaar, the two sides had initially agreed on TikTok’s participation, but the company later changed its position.    The company withdrew from this commitment on August 27. The decision came 1 day after Meta reached a broad settlement with state attorneys general. At the time, Meta also called on TikTok and YouTube to take a similar step. All 3 platforms face ongoing lawsuits concerning child safety.    Moolenaar said TikTok justified withdrawing from the hearing by saying that, following the Meta settlement, it would be unable to answer questions about child safety. According to the committee chair, child safety was not the main subject of the planned hearing. The committee will try to reschedule the hearing and have executives answer questions publicly by the end of the year.    The committee bases this demand on the law enacted to protect Americans from applications controlled by foreign adversaries. That law led to TikTok being briefly banned in the United States. President Donald Trump repeatedly delayed enforcement of the law. In January, a deal was reached to place the platform’s U.S. service under a new entity.    The January deal was expected to address the security concerns. Nevertheless, committee members still have questions about the platform’s operations. They want direct answers from TikTok executives about the Chinese government’s potential influence over the algorithm and how American users’ data is protected.