TikTok CEO defiant under DC grilling
TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew defended his company against a barrage of criticism from hostile U.S. lawmakers, repeatedly asserting the app’s independence from its Chinese owners.
Chew said its Beijingbased owner, ByteDance Ltd., is mostly owned by international investors and most of its board members are American.
“The bottom line is this is American data on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,” Chew said in an appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 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.
Chew faced combative questioning from members of both parties — who often cut off his attempts to answer — in his first appearance before Congress. The hearing comes as lawmakers and the Biden administration are exploring how to force ByteDance to sell its shares of the unit or face a ban in the U.S.
“You are here because the American people need to hear the truth about the threat TikTok poses to mental health and national security,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee’s chair and a Washington Republican, said. “Your platform should be banned. I expect today you’ll say anything to avoid this outcome.”
The hearing took a dark turn when Florida Republican Michael Bilirakis played a compilation of TikTok videos about suicide accompanied by ominous music.
Chew said TikTok takes the mental health of its users very seriously and refers people asking about suicide or death it to the platform’s safety page.
“We aren’t buying it,” McMorris Rodgers 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.
Ohio 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 in the room.
The centerpiece of Chew’s offering to quell concerns about Chinese influence — a $1.5 billion investment in U.S.-based data security measures — has already been rejected by U.S. government officials, who are demanding that
ByteDance sell its shares or face a U.S. ban, according to people familiar with a national security review of the app.
Chew called those reports “speculation” and said “conversations with the government are ongoing,” and TikTok’s effort to isolate and protect U.S. user data “has continued unabated.”
Chew also compared the steps TikTok is taking — to protect both data security and the safety of young users — to the practices of other big tech companies, describing the measures TikTok takes to verify the age of its users and enforce restrictions for children and teens as industry-leading.