TikTok’s safety chief talks about the fight in Washington
Suzy Loftus gazed into the camera and made a promise: She would keep American TikTok users and their data safe.
The ad blanketed TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms last week as lawmakers mulled legislation that could eviscerate the wildly popular app, which has some 170 million U.S. users.
The former San Francisco district attorney, who also worked at the California Department of Justice, is no stranger to political fights. But this past week, Loftus, now TikTok’s head of USDS trust & safety, watched as U.S. lawmakers voted to force the platform’s Chinese parent company to sell it or ban it if it’s not sold. President Joe Biden signed the legislation Wednesday.
The dispute centers on TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance. U.S. lawmakers are concerned that because of the company’s ownership, the Chinese government could use it to harvest data about Americans — or to try to spread disinformation.
Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the company’s ownership has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to control one of the most popular apps in America, a move he called “dangerously shortsighted.”
TikTok argues that those concerns are unfounded, while Loftus and others stress the “unprecedented” efforts and investments the company has made to firewall its data. The company has pledged to fight the ban in court.
Loftus arrived at TikTok in 2021 after stints as a prosecutor at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and at the California Department of Justice. She led the city’s Police Commission from 2012 to 2017 and returned to the D.A.’s office in 2019 when Mayor London Breed appointed her interim D.A. after her predecessor’s resignation. Loftus, who was running for the top job — with the endorsement of her friend and ally, then-Sen. Kamala Harris — lost to Chesa Boudin the next month by fewer than than 3,000 votes.
Over the past few years, as TikTok battled with lawmakers, the company went on a charm offensive, opening a “transparency center” intended to counter politicians’ concerns that the company was failing to protect U.S. users’ data and launching “Project Texas” to firewall the app’s American operations from ByteDance by transferring all U.S. user data over to Oracle, the Austin, Texas-based cloud computing company. Earlier this month, it blitzed social media with videos of Loftus and her promise to make TikTok safe for U.S. users.
When companies run into trouble, they often turn to a prominent, respected spokesperson to show they’re paying attention, said Sam Singer, a local public relations expert and spin doctor.
“In this case, that’s Suzy Loftus,” he said. “A former prosecutor, someone the public will look to with a level of trust. … She’s symbolic of this company taking action.”
The Chronicle spoke to Loftus on Thursday about the legislation and what’s next for her and TikTok. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Before working at TikTok, you spent a lot of time in San Francisco and at the California Department of Justice. Now you’re navigating these very tricky waters with lawmakers trying to (force a sale of or) ban TikTok. How did your work in the country’s tech capital prepare you for this?
Loftus: My career was really about public service and navigating what was a number of emerging technologies at the time. I think it gave me a really good perspective on some of the things that we can do better. And I was, like many of our users, a mom of teenagers in the pandemic. And I was desperate to motivate them to do something fun, to get them off the couch.
And another mom was like, there’s this thing called TikTok, and you should try it. And we had so much fun and it opened up this world to me that I thought was magical. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sort of step in. My job is to make sure that we are a safe platform. And that’s what I’ve done my entire career. So the opportunity to take the lessons I’ve learned about public safety from the real world and apply them to a platform that serves a billion users and 170 million Americans — I couldn’t pass up that chance to take those lessons to that world.
In these ads (that TikTok published in the run-up to Congress’ vote), you’re staking your past reputation as a prosecutor to this kind of promise that you’re going to help keep
TikTok safe for American users and national interests. On the other side, we’ve got lawmakers who are saying TikTok is a potential national security threat and a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. From your perspective, what are lawmakers getting wrong?
Loftus: I think the threat of a ban is not a new thing for us. What I’ve been really proud to see over the last three years is the really unprecedented and voluntary steps that TikTok has taken to safeguard U.S. user data. I’ve been a part of building it. I’m happy to talk about and to make sure that in this debate that people are aware of the steps that we’ve taken and the investment: I mean, $2 billion in trust and safety, the fact that we do safeguard U.S. user data, those are important pieces for people to know.
Can you talk about some of those steps?
Loftus: Ours is a team of 2,000 employees here in the U.S. And it’s our job to make sure that protected U.S user data is only accessed under our control. In addition, we partner with Oracle, an American company where protected U.S user data is stored in the cloud. They also review our source code.
Some of the lawmakers who voted against, or voted to (force a sale or) ban TikTok, are actually still using the platform. And I was wondering what you made of that.
Loftus: We just try to stay focused on the job ahead, which is to continue to innovate and safeguard U.S. user data. … We’ve got a really consequential U.S. election. As we know all platforms are, at this time when elections happen, seeing an increase in misinformation that is being put forward. We see the chance that there’s coordinated inauthentic behavior that’s happening. I’m really focused on making sure that what we do is the best in our industry and making sure that the platform is safe. And I think if we keep that focused, you know, the trust will be built over time.
What do these most recent developments mean for TikTok? And also what does it mean for you?
Loftus: We’ve seen the actions that have been taken by the executive branch and the legislative branch and we’re all aware that the courts are going to have a chance to weigh in. There are real concerns. We believe that this is an unconstitutional ban. That is something that’s going to continue to play out in the courts.
So you’re not looking for other jobs right now?
Loftus: I love my job. And I love fighting for this platform. It’s something that brings so much joy and it’s worth fighting for. It’s like, you know, I love San Francisco, and I’m happy to fight for her and defend her and build safety there, and I love TikTok, and I’m kind of doing the same thing here.
I know my time is running up here. Anything else I should have asked?
Loftus: The thing that is really clear to me is like our creators, our users, we have such an incredibly strong community of people across the U.S. who love this platform. And a number of people advocating. And so it doesn’t feel like we’re alone.