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Video-sharing app TikTok is reportedly conceding to U.S. officials as the Chinese-owned social media giant tries to avert being banned in America.
Citing people familiar with matter, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the platform — owned by China-based firm ByteDance — offered to increase its transparency by granting U.S. officials oversight of its algorithms as part of a $1.5 billion reorganization of its U.S. operations.
TikTok is offering more transparency to regulators as the platform faces growing scrutiny over data privacy concerns. (Photo Illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The news comes as TikTok ramps up its efforts to convince regulators that user data is protected and secure after years of scrutiny over concerns that the Chinese government has access to users' data.
Fears surrounding the popular social media site grew following a report last year that a TikTok team in China accessed data of U.S. TikTok users, including two journalists. Now, U.S. regulators are weighing whether to ban the app's use in the U.S. altogether.
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Several U.S. states, including Texas, Maryland, South Carolina and New Jersey, have already banned the use of TikTok on state-owned devices and networks over security concerns, and Congress prohibited its use on federal government devices in the omnibus bill President Joe Biden signed into law weeks ago.
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TikTok did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment over its purported new transparency efforts, but the company in December issued a press release in which it said it was "strengthening how we protect and secure our platform in the U.S."
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The company announced the creation of a new trust and safety team within its U.S. Data Security operation. TikTok also announced last summer that it was rerouting all U.S. user traffic to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, saying it would still use its U.S. and Singapore data centers for backup, "but as we continue our work we expect to delete U.S. users' private data from our own data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the U.S."
Shou Zi Chew, chief executive officer of TikTok Inc. (Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File / Getty Images)
But TikTok is not just under the microscope in the U.S. over privacy worries.
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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew reportedly met with EU officials last week to discuss how the social media platform plans to adhere to strict new digital regulations in Europe after regulators there voiced concerns regarding its handling of citizens' data.
FOX Business' Greg Wehner contributed to this report.