Lawmakers blasted TikTok’s chief executive over the platform’s ties to China in a roughly five-hour hearing on Thursday, highlighting how the viral video app has become a central battleground as the United States and China fight for the political, technological and economic primacy.
Shou Chew, chief executive of TikTok, owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, was showered with questions about the app’s relationship with its parent company and potential Chinese influence over the platform. Repeatedly asked Mr. Chew by Republican and Democratic lawmakers whether TikTok was spying on Americans on behalf of the Chinese government, he was cut off in mid-sentence and angrily demanded “yes” or “no” answers.
The hearing, a rare show of bipartisan unity that was harsher in tone than previous congressional hearings involving US executives from social media companies, was complicated by intervention by Chinese authorities. Hours before Chew testified, China’s Commerce Ministry said it opposed the sale of TikTok, in a public rebuke of the Biden administration, which demanded divestment and threatened a possible ban on the app in the United States.
That left Chew, 40, in a difficult position as he struggled to present TikTok as an independent company that wasn’t influenced by China. “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government,” he said at one point, a response that visibly frustrated lawmakers. “It’s a private company.”
The hearing and the statement from China cemented how TikTok has become a focal point of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are campaigning to boost their own tech sectors and have disrupted trade with each other’s countries as suspicions grow between Washington and Beijing.
With the US and China at odds over a TikTok sale, there are basically two paths for the US app. The Biden administration could ban the app, which could face a difficult court challenge, or it could review stalled negotiations to find a technical solution to data security issues.
But even as the White House considers those options, the striking bipartisan unity at Thursday’s hearing was a boon for President Biden as he takes a hard line against China. Almost every policy he has pursued has been vigorously rejected by Republicans, except for his tough stance against China on trade, technological dominance, the Ukraine war, and other issues.
“The future of TikTok in the US is definitely bleaker and more uncertain today than it was yesterday,” said Lindsay Gorman, director of technology and geopolitics at the German Marshall Fund and a former technology adviser to the Biden administration. “It’s not just one side of the aisle clamoring for TikTok to address these national security concerns, but now it’s coming from all sides.”
In order to continue operating in the United States without changing its Chinese ownership, TikTok had proposed ways to protect American users by blocking their data, among other steps. But no security agreement was reached and US intelligence officials warned that the app could be an arm of the Chinese government spying on Americans and spreading propaganda.
The stakes have risen in recent weeks, with the Biden administration pushing for TikTok to be sold to its Chinese owners or face a possible ban on American soil. But China’s comments Thursday against a sale reduce what the White House can do to contain the app without raising tensions, leading to acrimonious exchanges at the hearing with Chew.
It’s rare for CEOs of foreign-owned companies to testify in Congress, and one of the last times was when Toyota’s chairman appeared in 2010 to discuss the recall of millions of cars.
In recent years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have increasingly coalesced around growing animosity against Chinese companies in the United States, with government bans on exports to Chinese telecommunications companies and various bills aimed at limiting TikTok and other technologies linked to hostile foreign governments. .
At the hearing, more than 50 lawmakers expressed deep skepticism about Mr. Chew’s defense. They portrayed TikTok as a danger to national security, accusing it of invading people’s privacy, harming the mental health of adolescents, and causing the deaths of some young people. August Pfluger, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, told Chew that the chief executive had inspired a political unity not seen in three or four years.
“We are not confident that TikTok will ever embrace American values,” said Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican and chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which hosted the hearing. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path of more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Their platform should be banned.”
In a statement, a TikTok spokeswoman said the audience “was dominated by political swagger.”
Mr. Chew tried to distance TikTok from China, emphasizing that he was born in Singapore and lives there with his wife, who was born in Virginia, and their two children. He emphasized early on that he attended business school in the United States.
But he acknowledged that he reports directly to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo and that some TikTok employees participate in ByteDance’s stock option incentive plans.
Mr. Chew argued that banning TikTok would be a blow against free speech. The app serves many small businesses and creators and has 150 million users in the US and 7,000 employees in the country.
He also repeatedly pointed to efforts to protect Americans’ data. The company hatched a plan, Project Texas, to store American user data on home servers run by Oracle, the Texas-based software giant. He insisted that the data security program, which the Biden administration has rejected, would be the best way to protect consumers.
“The bottom line is this: US data is stored on US soil by a US company supervised by US personnel,” Chew said.
Lawmakers remained skeptical. Several cited China’s statement that it would oppose the sale of TikTok, saying it was evidence of the country’s influence over the company. They cited reports of surveillance of ByteDance by American journalists as evidence of the company’s abuse of user privacy and security. In December, ByteDance said its China-based employees had recovered the sensitive data of American TikTok users, including reporters, to try to find who was leaking inside information to journalists.
“I’m not convinced the benefits outweigh the risks it poses to Americans in its current form,” Frank Pallone, New Jersey’s ranking Democrat, said of TikTok. “The combination of TikTok’s Beijing-based communist Chinese ownership and its popularity exacerbates the danger to our country and to our privacy.”
Concerns about TikTok increased during the Trump administration. In 2020, President Donald J. Trump tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok from the Apple and Google app stores unless it was sold to an American buyer. No deal was ever reached to sell stakes in the app to Oracle and Walmart.
After the Biden administration took office, it initially focused on negotiating the security deal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States. That changed in recent weeks with the White House’s demand that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell the app. The administration also backed a new bill, sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-South Dakota, that would give it more power to ban TikTok.
Chew, who was named TikTok’s chief executive in May 2021, has embarked on a charm offensive in Washington in recent months, meeting with lawmakers, think tank leaders and journalists. This week, he tried to rally support with a video about Tik Tokofficial account of, warning users that politicians “could take TikTok away from the 150 million of you.”
TikTok is supported by free speech advocates, who warned against banning the app.
“Banning or restricting access to social media is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and we must be very cautious when giving the US government statement.
The lawmakers also raised concerns for TikTok and the young Americans in the audience. The app is used by 67 percent of American teens, according to the Pew Research Center. TikTok has faced criticism that it is too addictive and that its algorithm can bombard teens with videos that put them in dangerous and even deadly situations.
“TikTok could be designed to minimize harm to children, but the decision was made to aggressively addict children in the name of profit,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said during the hearing.
Mr Chew said that TikTok had worked to limit the repetition of videos on topics such as extreme exercise and that the app’s guidelines did not allow content that promoted self-harm or eating disorders. He also pointed to new 60-minute screen time limits, which parents can control, for users younger than 12, and prompts that now appear after 60 minutes for kids ages 13 to 17.
The legislators did not calm down. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., said Chew’s testimony solidified concerns about the company’s ties to China, data privacy violations and the way the app treats children.
“I think that really sums up why you see so much bipartisan consensus and concerns about your company,” he said. “And I imagine it’s not going away anytime soon.”
chang che contributed reporting.
