Senators demand TikTok produce documents in response to NPR report: NPR

FILE – Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., right, speak during a hearing Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington.

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A bipartisan pair of senators on Friday called on TikTok to turn over “all documents and information” related to child safety disclosures on the app that until recently remained hidden from the public.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote the letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in response to a report by NPR and Kentucky Public Radio that revealed internal company documents related to it suggest that TikTok executives are aware that the popular service can potentially endanger children.

The explosive revelations appeared in passages that were supposed to have been redacted in 14 different federal lawsuits A lawsuit was filed against TikTok earlier this week. But in Kentucky, a clerical error allowed the redacted portions to be read if they were copied and pasted into a separate document.

They revealed excerpts from previously unknown documents, mostly internal communications and presentations from TikTok, showing that the multi-billion-dollar tech company was aware of a range of potential harm to children even as it at times publicly presented information that conflicted with internal investigations.

In their letter, Blumenthal and Blackburn described the reporting as containing “shocking revelations” about TikTok's alleged failure to protect minors on the platform. “Instead of addressing these risks, TikTok appears to have misled the public about the security of its platform,” the senators wrote.

Blumenthal and Blackburn, who co-sponsored this Children's Online Safety Actwhich passed in the Senate but stalled in the House of Representatives, gave TikTok until Oct. 25 to provide senators with all of the confidential materials it had provided to Kentucky authorities before that state's top lawyer met sued the platform with 13 others on Tuesday.

A TikTok spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the senators' request.

But on Thursday, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek criticized NPR for reporting information now under a court seal, claiming that the material “cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.” to represent”.

On Friday, the Oversight Project, a social media monitoring group, said TikTok has not been honest about the safety of children on the app.

“These unredacted documents prove that TikTok knows exactly what it is doing to our children – and the rot goes all the way to the top,” the group said wrote on X.