TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced bipartisan questioning on Thursday when he appeared before the House Committee on Commerce and Energy to address lawmakers’ concerns about the 150 million-dollar video-sharing app. of active users in the US Of particular concern to the committee was the company’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, and its alleged ties to the Chinese government.
“We are not confident that TikTok will ever embrace American values, the values of freedom, human rights and innovation,” committee chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, said. saying in his opening statement. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path of more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Their platform should be banned.”
There are currently three bills in Congress that could affect American access to TikTok; two would legislate an outright ban on the platform, while the other would give the government the power to ban any technology deemed a national security risk. the Biden administration reportedly has demanded that ByteDance sell TikTok, threatening an outright ban on the app if the China-based company fails to comply. On Thursday, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce saying that the government would oppose a forced sale.
During the five-hour hearing, Chew, 40, who was born in Singapore, stressed that there has never been any evidence that the Chinese government has accessed TikTok user data. He said that countries they have banned the application in government devices has been done based on “hypothetical and theoretical risks”. Last month, in both the United States and Canada issued orders prohibiting the use of TikTok on government-issued mobile devices.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew stated in his written statement.
However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed doubts about this claim, with many committee members jokingly thanking the TikTok CEO for inspiring bipartisanship. “He has unified Republicans and Democrats and, if only for one day, we are actually united because we have serious concerns.” saying Rep. August Pfluger, Republican of Texas.
Chew’s response when asked about data privacy was texas projectthe platform’s ongoing operation to move information about its US users to US-based servers. TikTok’s CEO said no China-based employees would have access to US user data once it was completed the project, but committee members questioned whether this internal firewall would eliminate their security concerns.
“What you’re saying about the Texas Project just doesn’t pass the sniff test.” saying Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minnesota. “My constituents are concerned that TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party are monitoring their data and seeing our own vulnerabilities… What they’re doing in Texas is great, but it’s not enough to be convinced that our privacy is not at risk. .”
Like BuzzFeed News exclusively reported last year, China-based ByteDance employees accessed non-public US TikTok user data on multiple occasions between September 2021 and January 2022. In December, ByteDance said in a statement that an internal investigation revealed that the personal TikTok user data of the BuzzFeed News reporter who broke the story, and several other journalists who cover TikTok, had been accessed without authorization by ByteDance employees who were later fired.
Asked during the hearing by Rep. Neal Dunn, a Florida Republican, if ByteDance had ever spied on US citizens, Chew answered“I don’t think ‘spying’ is the right way to describe it.”
