TikTok Withdraws From House Committee Roundtable Over Child Safety Questions

TikTok withdrew from a congressional committee’s public roundtable scheduled for this month after concerns that it would face questions about its child safety practices, committee chair John Moolenaar said.

Moolenaar said he had negotiated in good faith to bring TikTok’s chief security officer before the House Select Committee on China. The planned discussion was to cover Chinese government access to Americans’ data and the TikTok algorithm.

“Now, TikTok is refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices,” Moolenaar wrote in a statement. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moolenaar told Bloomberg that TikTok reneged on its commitment on August 27th. He said the company cited Meta’s settlement with state attorneys general and claimed it would not be able to answer questions about child safety, although he said the meeting was not set to focus on that topic.

The committee will attempt to reschedule the meeting, Moolenaar said. He added that it would continue working to have TikTok executives publicly address questions about the company’s operations and safeguards before the end of the year, consistent with the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The law briefly banned TikTok in the US, while enforcement was repeatedly delayed by President Donald Trump. A deal making TikTok’s US service part of a new entity closed in January, but lawmakers retained concerns about Chinese government influence on the algorithm and US data protection.