Four of the companies – Luopu Haishi Dingxin Electronic Technology Co, Moyu Haishi Electronic Technology Co, Pishan Haishi Yong’an Electronic Technology Co and Urumqi Haishi Xin’an Electronic Technology Co – belong to the Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision, according to Hangzhou-based firm’s 2021 half-year report.
What’s more, TikTok is reportedly paying an army of influencers to descend on Washington DC over three days this week, courting lawmakers in the hopes of staving off a ban.
“Lawmakers in Washington debating TikTok should hear firsthand from people whose lives would be directly affected by their decisions,” said TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown (h/t Politico). “We look forward to welcoming our creators to our nation’s capital, helping them make their voices heard, and continuing to drive meaningful impact in their lives and for their communities.”
Governments around the world, including in the US at both the federal and state levels, have grown increasingly wary of TikTok in recent months, primarily over national security-related concerns stemming from the Chinese company ByteDance that launched the app.
A Forbes investigation, meanwhile, was the first to report on the surveillance of journalists by employees within TiKTok’s parent company who were searching for the source of leaks.
For some questions in life, there is only one correct answer. Questions like: Does this shirt make me look fat? Do you still love me? Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but? It’s when you start quibbling over the definition of this or that word in response to those questions that you start to look like … well, like TikTok CEO Shou Chew during his testimony at a congressional hearing on Thursday. At one point, he dodged a congressman’s question about whether TikTok spies on US users by nitpicking over the choice of the word “spying.”