TikTok employees are reportedly being asked by US border officers if they’re part of the Chinese Communist Party

US border officers have interrogated more than 30 ByteDance and TikTok employees, according to Forbes. They’re being asked about ties to the CCP, and the security of American user data. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Advertisement US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have interrogated more than 30 ByteDance and TikTok employees traveling to the US from China, according to a report by Forbes. Employees are being asked a list of dedicated questions, including whether they have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and what access ByteDance and TikTok have to American user data, Forbes reported, citing anonymous sources close to the matter. Employees from various teams — many of whom are Chinese — are also being asked by officers with CBP’s Office of Field Operations about Project Texas, per Forbes, which is TikTok’s overarching security plan to wall off American data from China. Advertisement “CBP is tasked with protecting our nation’s borders as well as enforcing numerous laws at our nation’s ports of entry on behalf of a variety of other government agencies, including state and local law enforcement,” a spokesperson for the agency told Business Insider. President Biden signed a bill into law last week requiring Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores unless ByteDance divests its US operations within 270 days. Related stories Forbes noted that the inquiries by border officers are similar to a line of questioning Sen. Tom Cotton posed to TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew during a congressional hearing in January. Correction: May 1, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated which type of Customs and Border Patrol worker was questioning TikTok employees. The CBP staff were Office of Field Operations officers, not border patrol agents. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-border-patrol-agents-interrogating-chinese-tiktok-employees-report-2024-4