TikTok Routes U.S. Traffic to Oracle Amid Reports of China Data Access
TikTok announces it is routing all U.S. user traffic through Oracle servers, but a new report claims engineers in China still access American data.
TikTok announces it routes 100% of U.S. user traffic to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure servers located inside the United States. The company plans to delete U.S. user data from its own data centers in the U.S. and Singapore as it completes this migration. TikTok also establishes a U.S.-based leadership team to manage domestic user data independently.
This migration announcement faces intense scrutiny following a BuzzFeed News report that reveals TikTok staff in China access U.S. user data. According to leaked recordings from 80 internal meetings, U.S. employees repeatedly consult with Chinese colleagues to understand data flows because they lack the permission or knowledge to access the information themselves. One unnamed Trust and Safety employee states that "everything is seen in China."
This revelation fuels long-standing concerns from U.S. officials about the Chinese-owned app sharing American information with Beijing. While TikTok and its parent company ByteDance publicly deny handing over U.S. data, the Biden administration continues to review foreign-controlled applications for potential security threats. The new Oracle partnership aims to resolve these national security concerns by keeping American data on American soil.