TikTok’s CEO fails to placate U.S. lawmakers eager to ban it
TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew’s appearance in Congress on Thursday did little to calm the bipartisan fury directed at the viral video-sharing service. If anything, his more than four hours of testimony gave critics more fuel to insist the app be banned in the U.S.
“We came here hoping to hear some action that would alleviate our concerns,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Delaware Democrat. “I’ve not been reassured by anything you’ve said so far. I think quite frankly your testimony has raised more questions for me than answers.”
Chew faced hostile questioning from members of both parties (lawmakers often cut off his attempts to answer) in his appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The testimony comes as lawmakers and the Biden administration are exploring how to force TitTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd., to sell its shares of the unit or block it in the U.S.
Chew said TikTok is independent of ByteDance and the platform’s headquarters are in Singapore and Los Angeles.
“The bottom line is this is American data on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,” Chew said. He could not unequivocally say that no ByteDance employees have access to that data, saying rather that he’s
“seen no evidence” of that happening.
Ohio Republican Rep.
Bob Latta asked Chew “yes or no,” do Chinese employees including engineers have access to U.S. user data? Chew’s response — “this is a complex subject” — drew incredulous chuckles.
Chew answered other yes or no questions with incomplete denials. “That’s not how we see it,” he said when asked whether TikTok is a Chinese company. “I’ve seen no evidence,” he said when asked whether ByteDance employees access U.S. user data.
When asked by Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., whether China can use TikTok to spy on Americans, Chew replied, “No.” When confronted with a Forbes article regarding ByteDance employees accessing the data of U.S. journalists, Chew said, “I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it” — again drawing murmurs of disbelief from the crowd.
Chew was repeatedly reminded that he was under oath, echoing the prevailing sentiment on Capitol Hill this week that any statement from TikTok or ByteDance is not to be trusted.
The hearing took a dark turn when Florida Republican Michael Bilirakis played a compilation of TikTok videos about suicide accompanied by ominous music.
Michelle and Dean Nasca, whose 16-year old son died by suicide after using TikTok, were at the hearing. The couple is suing ByteDance, alleging that TikTok sent their son more than 1,000 videos related to suicide, hopelessness and self-harm.
Chew told the lawmakers that TikTok takes the mental health of its users very seriously and refers people asking about suicide or death to the platform’s safety page.
“We aren’t buying it,” Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee’s chair and a Washington Republican, said of TikTok’s arguments of why the service is safe.
Rodgers said the app’s wide popularity — used by 150 million Americans — is precisely why it poses such a threat.
The room was overflowing with TikTokers who credit the app with giving them a voice or growing their small businesses. But the lawmakers weren’t assuaged, firing rapid-fire questions to Chew.