Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal are seeking information about TikTok's executive transfer from its Chinese parent company, Bytedance.
In a letter sent to TikTok on Tuesday, the senators asked about that relationship, including whether TikTok had disclosed recent personnel changes to the U.S. government.
Since the beginning of the year, executives transferred from ByteDance to TikTok have taken on a number of senior positions in TikTok's profitable business. Some came to the United States from Beijing, others brought their own teams.
In a letter to TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew, the senators said: "These personnel changes give the impression that TikTok is trying to avoid suspicion while maintaining ByteDance's influence over TikTok." We are concerned that these personnel changes undermine the security of U.S. data and TikTok's claims of its independence from ByteDance."
TikTok has faced scrutiny from US authorities over concerns that the Chinese government could pressure it to hand over user data or use the app for propaganda, concerns that TikTok has repeatedly denied.
A TikTok spokesperson said on Tuesday that it was not uncommon for employees at large multinational organizations to work for different products or geographies throughout their careers. The phenomenon is neither new nor unique to Tiktok, a spokesperson said. In most cases, these employees report to senior executives within Tiktok, the company said.
The senators who wrote the letter, Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, and Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, struck an unlikely bipartisan deal on the issue.
The letter, dated Oct. 3, contained questions to TikTok, including information about how many former ByteDance employees TikTok had hired, whether TikTok had disclosed personnel changes to the U.S. government committee, and restrictions on communication between TikTok employees who had worked for ByteDance and employees in China.
In the letter, the senators asked TikTok to answer the questions by October 13.