FILE – Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., proper converse throughout a listening to, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
A bipartisan pair of senators on Friday requested that TikTok flip over “all documents and information” associated to disclosures about little one security on the app that, till not too long ago, had been hidden from public view.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote the letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in response to reporting from NPR and Kentucky Public Radio that exposed inside firm paperwork suggesting the corporate is conscious of how the favored service can doubtlessly endanger kids.
The bombshell revelations appeared in passages that had been speculated to have been redacted in 14 separate state lawsuits filed in opposition to TikTok earlier within the week. However in Kentucky, a clerical error allowed the blacked-out parts to be learn when copied and pasted right into a separate doc.
They revealed excerpts from previously-unknown paperwork, largely TikTok’s inside communications and displays, and confirmed the multibillion-dollar tech agency was conscious of a complete host of potential harms to kids, though it at occasions offered data publicly that contradicted inside analysis.
Of their letter, Blumenthal and Blackburn described the reporting as together with “shocking revelations” about TikTok’s alleged failure to maintain minors secure on the platform. “Rather than address these risks, TikTok instead seemingly misled the public about the safety of its platform,” the senators wrote.
Blumenthal and Blackburn, who co-sponsored the Children On-line Security Act, which handed within the Senate however stalled within the Home, gave TikTok till Oct. 25 to offer the senators with the entire confidential supplies it offered to Kentucky authorities earlier than that state’s prime legal professional, together with 13 others, sued the platform on Oct. 11.
A TikTok spokesman didn’t return a request for remark in regards to the senators’ request.
However on Thursday, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek criticized NPR for reporting on data that’s now below a courtroom seal, claiming the fabric “cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.”
On Friday, the Oversight Challenge, a social media watchdog group, stated that TikTok has not been trustworthy about how secure kids are on the app.
“These unredacted documents prove that TikTok knows exactly what it’s doing to our kids–and the rot goes all the way to the top,” the group wrote on X.
