• by Colin Kirkland , June 27, 2024

As TikTok continues to battle the U.S. government over a potential ban, the social media company has hired two cybersecurity firms to monitor its safety and data-protection measures in the U.S.

TikTok also extended an ongoing partnership with Oracle and the company’s “Project Texas Plan,” designed to wall off U.S. TikTok user data from the Chinese government.

In May 2022, the ByteDance-owned company created an organization called TikTok U.S. Data Security (TikTok USDS) via Project Texas in order to keep U.S. users safe by transferring the control of their data stored in the Oracle Cloud. 

But despite TikTok’s billion-dollar investment in Project Texas and its proposed goal of storing U.S. user data with TikTok USDS, government officials do not trust the project’s overall legitimacy.

Over the past year, former TikTok employees have described the initiative as “largely cosmetic,” claiming that massive data sheets have been sent overseas to Beijing-based ByteDance workers.

Now, TikTok USDS is doubling down on its attempt to prove that it is serious about protecting U.S. user data by partnering with cybersecurity firms HaystackID and OnDefend, which the company is calling “Independent Security Inspectors.” 

“This collaboration is designed to ensure the security and integrity of the TikTok app, its source code, user information, and the U.S. platform as a whole, highlighting TikTok USDS’s commitment to meeting stringent cybersecurity standards,” the company said in a recent statement.

HaystackID and OnDefend, with additional support from cybersecurity firm Mandiant Consulting, will work to identify security risks to U.S. users through ongoing technical security testing. 

Perhaps the company’s current efforts would have appeased some U.S. regulators and government officials at an earlier date, but the legislation to sell-off or ban TikTok in the U.S. is well underway. In April, President Biden signed a law to ban the app if it is not sold within a year, citing fears that the Chinese government was able to obtain data from the app about Americans and the Community Party would use the app to spread propaganda. 

In response, TikTok has made it clear to U.S. officials that it believes the law is unprecedented and violates the First Amendment, arguing as well that divestiture is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” as TikTok “would still be reduced to a shell of its former self, stripped of the innovative and expressive technology that tailors content to each user.”