• by Colin Kirkland , April 30, 2024

TikTok employees traveling to the U.S. have been stopped by border agents and asked questions about their access to sensitive American data and their potential affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party, according to a recent report by Forbes.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are holding some of the employees of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, for additional questioning.

Of those being questioned by the CBP, Forbes says it is focusing mainly on Chinese nationals -- many of whom are machine-learning specialists and data engineers at the social media company.

Agents have asked about data access and the location of TikTok's U.S.-based data centers.

The CBP has also inquired about employees’ individual involvement with the $1.5 billion corporate project known as Project Texas, which was designed to wall off U.S. TikTok user data from the Chinese government.

TikTok proposed the initiative last March as a way to quell the U.S. government's concerns about the Chinese government using TikTok as a way to spread propaganda and spy on U.S. consumers.shou

Some TikTok employees being held for questioning have been asked whether they are members of the Chinese Communist Party, and are also required to supply information about their schooling history and political connections in China. Border agents are referring to the same list of printed questions, Forbes says.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, has been investigating ByteDance since 2019, recommending last year that the U.S. should force ByteDance to sell social media app or ban it altogether. And the committee may get their wish.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a ban on TikTok.

In the week prior, both the House and the Senate passed the measure, giving ByteDance one year to sell the app -- or app stores will stop distributing the platform.

If the measure becomes law, TikTok plans to fight back, stating that the bill would “trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform.”

Data shows that the app hosts over 5 million small businesses in the U.S. and generated almost $15 billion in revenue in 2023, creating over 224,000 U.S. jobs.

Yet, it is still possible that the company allows ByteDance more access to U.S. user data than it lets on.

While TikTok has repeatedly referenced the effectiveness of Project Texas in congressional testimonies, various reports suggest China's ongoing ability to access U.S. user data.

Earlier this month, several former TikTok employees told Fortune that the initiative is “largely cosmetic,” with employees emailing massive data sheets to Beijing-based ByteDance workers.