Ex-Twitter, Facebook executives urge US lawmakers to rein in social-media platforms

(l-r) Cox, Mohan, Pappas, and Sullivan testifying during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing to examine social media's impact on homeland security, on Sept 14, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. — AP

A top executive for the video app TikTok Inc, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd, told a US Senate panel that it’s negotiating with federal regulators on restricting access to user data for employees in China, but declined to commit to a total cutoff.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, repeatedly asked the platform’s Chief Operating Officer, Vanessa Pappas, to say the company would seal off Chinese access to all US data. Pappas declined to do so, instead saying that the company will continue to cooperate with federal agencies in drafting an agreement to protect US user data.