Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is arguing with American lawmakers in his first open congressional hearing on the app’s potential connections to the Chinese government.
The meeting on Thursday is being convened as support for outlawing the Chinese-owned app due to national security concerns has increased in Washington.
The Chinese owners of TikTok have reportedly been urged to sell the app or risk losing their ability to do business in the US by President Joe Biden’s administration.
Lawmakers have claimed that TikTok does not effectively protect children from danger. That American user data might be easily shared with the Chinese government, and that the app could serve as a platform for Beijing’s disinformation and propaganda.
China has responded by claiming that the US is stifling users and disseminating false information.
According to the corporation, 150 million Americans are among TikTok’s one billion monthly users worldwide. That is almost half of the total population.
Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chairwoman of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, claimed that the Chinese Communist Party could manipulate America as a whole using this.
She added at the beginning of the hearing, “TikTok has continually chosen the path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. “Your platform ought to be shut down.”
Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee, claimed that TikTok’s main firm, ByteDance, was indistinguishable from the Chinese government. Underscoring Washington’s bipartisan scepticism towards the app.
Regarding the safeguarding of customer data, Chew referred to “Project Texas.” A purportedly $1.5 billion plan to establish a US-based storage programme through agreements with the Texas-based Oracle firm.
Pre-existing user data was in the process of being destroyed from servers in the US and Singapore. According to Chew, who added that the programme is creating “what amounts to a firewall that locks off protected user data from unauthorised foreign access.”
He also stated that TikTok will give “access to researchers, which enables them study and monitor our content ecosystem”. In order to avoid the company’s algorithms from pushing harmful content, false information, or movies that are not acceptable for children.
Several lawmakers also focused on a Wall Street Journal article from Thursday in which a representative of the Commerce Ministry. Claimed that any sale of TikTok would require Chinese government approval.
The lawmakers referred to the article as another proof of the close ties between ByteDance and the Chinese government.
Rodgers said Chew, quoting an article from The Wall Street Journal, “I have little faith in your argument that ByteDance and TikTok are not beholden to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”
Another heated exchange occurred when Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack refuted Chew’s claim that TikTok routinely removes “harmful comments”. By presenting a video that threatened the committee hearing and featured a gun. It was on the app since February 10, according to her.
She responded, “Your own community guidelines specify that you have a strong stance against encouraging violence on or off TikTok.
When you can’t even safeguard the people in this room, how can we believe that you can keep the data privacy and security of 150 million Americans? During the hearing, the post was subsequently taken down.
According to Cammack, “I think that is a glaring indication of how vulnerable people who use TikTok are.”
Despite the tense exchanges during the session on Thursday, not all American lawmakers have backed attacking the firm.
Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman questioned “Why the hysteria, the panic, and the targeting of TikTok” during a news conference on Wednesday evening.
Instead of outlawing TikTok, he said, “we need comprehensive laws to ensure that the data of social media users is safe and secure.”
On Wednesday, dozens of TikTok creators gathered to campaign for the platform on Capitol Hill.
Lack of proof that TikTok has been used to compromise US national security has been cited by opponents of the ban on the app.
