WASHINGTON — The CEO of viral video app TikTok arrived on Capitol Hill Thursday and endured a rare bipartisan backlash from lawmakers who are considering banning the app in the US.
Shou Zi Chew testified for the first time in front of lawmakers about the social media giant’s data security and user security – an issue that lawmakers are concerned about. from both parties have been warned can lead to a ban on the popular app.
“TikTok is monitoring all of us and the Chinese Communist Party is using it as a tool to deceive 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 Singaporean, said the popular vertical video app should remain accessible to Americans, providing users with privacy protections and a firewall against foreign interference.
“There are more than 150 million Americans who enjoy 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 origins and said that the app is truly American. The platform’s parent company, ByteDance, was founded in 2012 by Chinese businessmen in Beijing, prompting lawmakers to accuse TikTok of giving the Chinese government access to US user data.
Part of Chew’s efforts to Americanize the company include selling officials in a $1.5 billion plan called Project Texas, which the CEO said will transfer all user data in the US to domestic servers owned by software company Oracle. All new US user data has been stored in the country since October, Chew said, and TikTok began deleting historic 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 represented a rare instance of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers from both parties blasting the company. Republicans stressed the need for a ban, while Democrats suggested they favor a more comprehensive approach to protecting consumers, especially younger ones, from the harms of social media.
But Democrats are no less hostile than their Republican counterparts about TikTok’s ill effects on the mental health of younger users or the possibility that China could use the app against the US.
“A disinformation campaign can be launched by the Chinese Communist government through TikTok, which has been filled with misinformation and disinformation, illegal activity, and hate speech,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ), in his opening statement. .
Lawmakers highlighted ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government, asking, for example, whether Chew had regular contact with ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, which Chew said he did.
TikTok has been 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 cadre of the app’s popular influencers to Washington, where they made videos at the Capitol and lobbied against the ban. In a press conference with influencers, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (DN.Y.) said lawmakers were creating “hysteria” by targeting TikTok while Americans use many other Chinese-owned apps.
But the recruitment of American user companies to lobby against the ban — which included a video of Chew himself asking users what they wanted to tell lawmakers — backfired on committee member Bob Latta (R-Ohio).
“Earlier this week, you posted a TikTok video asking American users to mobilize in support of your app and against a potential US government move to ban TikTok from the United States,” Latta said. “Based on the existing relationship between your company and the Chinese Communist Party, I cannot conclude that the video is any different from the type of propaganda that the CCP needs for Chinese companies to push on their citizens.”