The CEO of TikTok was defeated by each events in Congress

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew confronted a bipartisan dialogue on Thursday as he appeared earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee to handle lawmakers' issues concerning the video-sharing app, which has 150 million customers. lively customers in the US. The committee was significantly involved concerning the China-based firm's mother or father firm, ByteDance, and its alleged ties to the Chinese language authorities.

“We do not consider that TikTok will ever embrace American values, the values ​​of freedom, human rights and innovation,” mentioned committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, D.C. mentioned in his opening assertion. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the trail for extra management, extra surveillance and extra manipulation. Your platform ought to be banned.”

There's at present three payments in Congress that might have an effect on U.S. entry to TikTok; two would legislate an outright ban on the platform, whereas the opposite would give the federal government the facility to ban any know-how deemed a nationwide safety danger. The Biden Administration would have demanded that ByteDance promote TikTok, threatening a complete ban on the app if the China-based firm doesn't comply. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Chinese language Ministry of Commerce mentioned that the federal government would oppose a compelled sale.

Through the five-hour listening to, Chew, 40, born in Singapore, identified that there was by no means proof that the Chinese language authorities accessed TikTok consumer knowledge. He mentioned that international locations who banned the app on authorities units did so primarily based on “hypothetical and theoretical dangers”. Final month, the US and Canada issued orders prohibiting the usage of TikTok on government-issued cellular units.

“Let me say this unequivocally: ByteDance will not be an agent of China or every other nation,” Chew mentioned in his written assertion.

Nevertheless, lawmakers on each side of the aisle expressed doubts about that declare, and plenty of committee members jokingly thanked the TikTok CEO for uplifting bipartisanship. “You've gotten unified Republicans and Democrats and, if just for a day, we are literally unified as a result of we now have severe issues,” mentioned Consultant August Pfluger, a Republican from Texas.

Chew's response when requested about knowledge privateness was Texas Challenge, the platform's ongoing operation to maneuver details about its US customers to US-based servers. TikTok's CEO mentioned no China-based workers would have entry to US consumer knowledge as soon as the venture is full, however committee members questioned if this inside firewall would remove their safety issues.

“What you say concerning the Texas venture simply does not go the odor check,” mentioned Consultant Angie Craig, a Democrat from Minnesota. “My constituents are nervous about TikTok and the Chinese language Communist Celebration controlling their knowledge and seeing our personal vulnerabilities. … What you are doing in Texas is nice, nevertheless it's not sufficient to be satisfied that our privateness will not be in danger. ”

Like BuzzFeed Information completely reported final 12 months, China-based ByteDance workers repeatedly accessed private knowledge of U.S. TikTok customers between September 2021 and January 2022. In December, ByteDance mentioned in a assertion that an inside investigation revealed that the private knowledge of TikTok customers of the BuzzFeed Information reporter who broke the story – and several other different journalists who cowl TikTok – had been accessed with out permission by ByteDance workers who had been later dismissed.

Requested by Rep. Neal Dunn, a Florida Republican, throughout the listening to if ByteDance had ever spied on U.S. residents, Chew replied“I do not suppose ‘espionage' is the proper method to describe it.”