Hillicon Valley — TikTok scrutiny mounts

House Republicans are urging TikTok to release information regarding the access that its Chinese employees have to data from U.S. users. 

Meanwhile, a new Congressional report reveals that several leading cryptocurrency miners have the electrical capacity equivalent to nearly every residence in Houston. 

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar, Chris Mills Rodrigo and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

GOP presses TikTok on US data

Two high-ranking House Republicans are asking TikTok for more information about the access that China-based employees of its parent company ByteDance have to American data. 

“We write to request documents and information regarding recent reports that TikTok allows China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, to access non-public U.S. user data, contrary to the company’s previous denials,” the top Republican on the Oversight committee, James Comer (R-Ky.), and top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), wrote in a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. 

“If true, not only did TikTok misrepresent or provide false testimony about its data management and security practices, but it has placed the safety and privacy of millions of U.S. citizens in jeopardy,” they added in the letter sent Thursday. 

The short form video platform had maintained since exploding in popularity in the U.S. that data from Americans was not accessible in China, where security laws make it easy for the government to obtain information held by companies. 

Read more here. 

CRYPTOCURRENCY CRUNCH 

A handful of leading cryptocurrency miners have the electrical capacity equivalent to nearly every residence in Houston, Texas, according to data released by Democratic members of Congress on Friday.  

In a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, members led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted that leading cryptominers have developed more than 1,045 megawatts in mining capacity as of February. 

Companies that responded to the members’ inquiries included Riot Blockchain, Bit Digital, Bitdeer, Stronghold, Marathon and Greenidge. 

Following a crackdown on cryptomining by the Chinese government, mining operations have increasingly moved onshore in the U.S., according to the members. The U.S. share of global mining for Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, increased from 4 percent in August 2019 to nearly 38 percent in January.   

Read more here. 

TECH GROUP RAISE DATA PRIVACY CONCERNS 

A technology trade organization is pushing the Justice Department (DOJ) to reevaluate its position on electronic communications privacy to protect women seeking to obtain an abortion.  

Elizabeth Banker, vice president of legal advocacy for the Chamber of Progress, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday to urge the DOJ to support the protection of private data from “unjustified law enforcement intrusions.” 

The letter states that federal prosecutors’ repeated arguments in court to obtain data held by third-party service providers violate the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. 

Banker argued that these data seizures could put people who are using the internet to search for and schedule abortion appointments at risk of states’ threats to prosecute health care providers performing abortions and the people getting them. 

Read more here.  

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: So many broken systems, but this one has a fix 

Notable links from around the web: 

Tech Journalism’s Accessibility Problem (The Verge / Monica Chin) 

The never-ending quest to predict crime using AI (The Washington Post / Pranshu Verma) 

Amazon executives have discussed ditching Amazon Basics to appease regulators (Recode / Jason Del Rey) 

⚾️ Lighter click: Perfect use of angles

One more thing: Beyonce joins TikTok

Beyoncé has joined TikTok. 

The pop star posted her first video on the platform on Thursday, and Variety reported that her entire music catalog is now available for users to utilize as audio, known as “sounds,” in their own posts. 

Beyoncé’s first video on the app included a montage of her fans dancing to her new single, “Break My Soul.” 

“Seeing y’all release the wiggle made me so happy!” she wrote in the post’s caption. “Thank you so much for all the love for BREAK MY SOUL! – Love B —#RE” 

Read more here. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you next week.

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