The US Congress scrutinized TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, during a four-hour hearing as the company faces escalating demands for a ban in the United States.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee raised concerns that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could be compelled to provide personal data to the Chinese government. In response, Chew emphasized, “Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action, building what amounts to a firewall.”
Chew highlighted TikTok’s partnership with Oracle known as ‘Project Texas,’ aimed at securing American user data within the US to prevent Chinese access. However, he admitted that ‘Project Texas’ is not yet fully operational and that Chinese engineers still have access to US data.
Earlier this year, Forbes reported that JP Morgan is collaborating with ByteDance on payments technology to help expand TikTok into new markets and the fintech sector. This partnership positions TikTok not just as a social media platform for video sharing, but as a significant marketplace facilitating billions of dollars in transactions annually.
JP Morgan’s role involves streamlining payments for several of ByteDance’s products. A prior JP Morgan case study discussed a real-time payments system for ByteDance, allowing users to receive instant payments into their bank accounts. This system was said to encompass approximately one-fifth of TikTok’s one billion active users globally and enabled direct data exchange between ByteDance and JP Morgan for monitoring purposes.
It remains uncertain how the bank’s access to US user transaction data may influence this partnership. Finextra has reached out to JP Morgan for further comments.