TikTok reverses decision to meet US lawmakers over child safety, pulling out of a House Select Committee roundtable and citing Meta’s recent child-safety settlement.

TikTok reverses decision to meet US lawmakers over child safety

TikTok reverses decision to meet US lawmakers over child safety, withdrawing from a planned public roundtable with the House Select Committee on China. The committee’s chair, Representative John Moolenaar, said TikTok pulled out after negotiating “in good faith” to send its chief security officer, Will Farrell, to discuss national security and operational safeguards.

TikTok cited Meta’s recent settlement with state attorneys general over child-safety issues as the reason it could not participate. Moolenaar said the company claimed that, in light of Meta’s agreement, it would be unable to answer questions about child-safety practices. He added that the roundtable was not intended to focus on child safety, but rather on TikTok’s US business, algorithm, and data protections under its new ownership structure.

What the meeting was supposed to cover

The bipartisan roundtable, scheduled for September 15, was meant to address lawmakers’ questions about:

• TikTok’s US business that was spun out from ByteDance earlier in 2026.

• How the new majority-American ownership is safeguarding the app’s algorithm.

• Protections for Americans’ data from Chinese influence.

• Compliance with the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which temporarily banned TikTok in the US over security concerns.

TikTok had initially agreed to send its chief security officer to answer these questions before reversing its decision on August 27, according to Moolenaar.

TikTok’s stated reason for withdrawing

Moolenaar told Bloomberg that TikTok withdrew because it did not want to face broader scrutiny of its child-safety practices after Meta’s settlement. He said:

“They claimed that in light of Meta’s settlement with state attorneys general, they wouldn’t be able to answer questions on child-safety issues.”

The committee chair stressed that the roundtable was not designed to focus on children’s safety. Instead, it was intended to increase transparency around how TikTok operates under its new ownership and to assure the public that the app is following US national security law.

Context: recent child-safety settlements and scrutiny

TikTok’s decision comes shortly after several high-profile developments involving child safety and social media:

• In August 2026, TikTok agreed to pay $400 million to the US Department of Justice to settle allegations that it collected data on millions of children under 13 without parental consent and failed to honour data-deletion requests.

• The settlement also vacated a 2019 FTC consent decree against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, and included commitments to stronger age-related controls and parental oversight tools.

• Senators have also questioned TikTok about an internal experiment that allegedly withheld a safety feature from a subset of users, including a teenager who later died by suicide.

These events have intensified scrutiny of TikTok’s safety practices, even as the company argues that it has implemented robust protections for younger users.

Committee plans to reschedule

Despite TikTok’s withdrawal, Moolenaar said the committee intends to reschedule the meeting. He emphasised that TikTok executives must still publicly address questions about the company’s operations and safeguards, as required by the national security law governing the app’s US presence.

The committee’s goal remains to ensure that TikTok’s algorithm and data-handling practices are transparent and that the US business is effectively insulated from foreign-adversary influence.

Summary: TikTok reverses decision to meet US lawmakers over child safety, pulling out of a House Select Committee roundtable and citing Meta’s child-safety settlement. The committee says the meeting was focused on national security and operational transparency, not child safety, and plans to reschedule.