Javier Palomarez, USHBC President & CEO, Condemns TikTok for Dishonesty

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC) condemns TikTok’s refusal to attend a roundtable scheduled for September 15, which was to be hosted by a congressional committee on the strategic competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party. The discussion topic was to be the platform’s algorithm and the protection of Americans’ data.

According to Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), TikTok justified its withdrawal by citing unrelated, ongoing child-safety litigation. However, Chairman Moolenaar said the roundtable was intended to address the Chinese Communist Party’s influence over TikTok’s algorithm and access to Americans’ consumer data.

Javier Palomarez, USHBC President & CEO, issued the following statement:

“I wholeheartedly condemn TikTok’s dishonesty and refusal to be transparent and held accountable by the elected representatives of the American people. For more than a year, USHBC defended TikTok because millions of American small businesses had come to depend on TikTok to reach new customers, build brands, and compete in a digital economy. We supported a deal that would preserve that opportunity while bringing TikTok’s U.S. operations under greater American ownership, oversight, and data protections. Our support was never unconditional. We expected TikTok to earn the trust it asked Americans to place in it. TikTok spent months negotiating its participation in the roundtable and agreed to send its Chief Security Officer. Then TikTok refused to attend the roundtable. What is TikTok trying to hide? A company with access to the data of more than 200 million Americans cannot expect Congress, businesses, and parents to simply take its word that its safeguards are working. Given that the Chinese company, ByteDance, still holds a 20 percent stake in TikTok, it’s urgent that our lawmakers understand the structure and safeguards of the platform.

We need to ensure that the protections under its new structure are legitimate. TikTok should be more than willing to explain how it secures American user data. In the past, the USHBC has raised concerns about illicit Chinese vapes and connected vehicle technologies from China. Any company seeking access to American consumers must play by the rules, accept transparency and accountability. I call on every Member of Congress, particularly Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH), to use their oversight authority to hold TikTok accountable. Senator Moreno’s bipartisan Connected Vehicle Security Act offers a model for confronting CCP-linked technologies that threaten Americans’ economic and national security. Congress should bring that same resolve to a company that wantonly disregarded questions about how it handles American consumers and their data. We defended TikTok’s opportunity to remain in America. Now TikTok must show up, answer the hard questions, and prove we were right to do so.”

To learn more, follow @myushbc and @JPalomarez on X.
Visit ushbc.com/join to become a member today.

About the USHBC
Javier Palomarez is the President & CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council
(USHBC). The United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC) is the leading voice for the
Hispanic business community. A 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization, the USHBC focuses on
improving access to contracting in the public and private sectors, fair representation of
Hispanics in business, media, and politics, and ensuring Hispanics have a voice in the national dialogue. The USHBC is a nonpartisan organization.

Katherine Machado O’Hara
The Oxígeno Project
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Written By: EIN Presswire