WASHINGTON – The CEO of the viral video app TikTok came to Capitol Hill on Thursday and suffered a rare bipartisan fight from lawmakers weighing whether to ban the app in the United States.
Shou Zi Chew testifies to MPs for first time about social media giant’s data security and user safety – MPs Matters both sides have warned that this could lead to the popular app being banned.
“TikTok is surveilling us all, and the Chinese Communist Party is using it as a tool to manipulate America as a whole,” said House Energy and Commerce Speaker Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). “Your platform should be banned. I expect you to say something today to avoid this outcome.
Chew, a 40-year-old native of Singapore, argued that the popular vertical video app should remain accessible to Americans while promoting user privacy protections and a firewall against foreign interference.
“There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform, and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Chew told the committee.
Chew used his testimony to distance TikTok from its Chinese roots and argue that the app is deeply American. The platform’s parent company, ByteDance, was founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneurs in Beijing, prompting lawmakers to accuse TikTok of giving the Chinese government access to US user data. The Chinese government exercises control over private companies in the country.
Part of Chew’s efforts to Americanize the company includes selling officials on a $1.5 billion plan called Project Texas, which the CEO says directs all U.S. user data to internal servers owned by software company Oracle. All new US user data has been stored in the country since October, Chew said, and TikTok began removing historical user data from non-Oracle servers this month.
“The bottom line is this: American data stored on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,” Chew said.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
The hearing was a rare case of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers from both parties criticizing the company. Republicans have stressed the need for a ban, while Democrats have suggested favoring a more comprehensive approach to protect consumers, especially younger ones, from the harms of social media.
But Democrats have been no less hostile than their Republican counterparts about TikTok’s negative effects on the mental health of younger users or the possibility that China could use the app against the United States.
“Disinformation campaigns could be launched by the Chinese Communist government through TikTok, which has already become rife with disinformation and misinformation, illegal activity and hate speech,” the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone (N.J.), said in the statement opening. .
Lawmakers highlighted ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government, asking, for example, whether Chew had routine contact with ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, which Chew said he did.
TikTok is already banned from government-issued devices in several Western countries, including Denmark, Canada and the European Union. In the US, the app has been banned from official devices by the federal government, Congress, the military and more than half of the states due to cybersecurity concerns.
Before Thursday’s hearing, TikTok brought a group of popular app influencers to Washington, where they made videos on Capitol Hill and lobbied against the ban. In a news conference with influencers, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (DN.Y.) said lawmakers are creating “hysteria” by targeting TikTok when Americans use many other Chinese-owned apps.
But the company’s recruitment of American users to lobby against a ban — which included a video of Chew himself asking users what they wanted to tell lawmakers — was opposed by committee member Bob Latta (R-Ohio).
“Earlier this week, you posted a TikTok video asking US users to rally in support of your app and oppose potential US government action to ban TikTok from the US,” Latta said. “Based on the established relationship between your company and the Chinese Communist Party, it is impossible for me to conclude that the video is anything other than the kind of propaganda that the CCP requires Chinese companies to push on their citizens.”
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