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The CEO of TikTok made a high-profile appearance on Thursday before a US congressional committee, where he faced the issue of data security and user safety.
Shou Zi Chew also made a case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app should not be banned, as has been considered in the US, but it seemed unpersuasive based on questions and comments from committee members.
Chew’s testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has gained 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from US officials. TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology.
In an opening statement, the chairwoman of the energy and commerce committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, attacked the social platform’s credibility because of its ties to Beijing.
“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about TikTok’s threat to our national and personal security,” McMorris Rodgers said. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path of more control, more surveillance and more manipulation.”
Chew, a 40-year-old Singaporean who studied in the UK and the US, said in an opening statement that he was keen to clear up “misunderstandings” about TikTok and ByteDance.
The data is stored on ‘American soil,’ Chew said
TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or could be used to promote a narrative favorable to the country’s Communist leadership.
To avoid the ban, TikTok has been trying to sell officials on a US$1.5 billion plan to redirect all US user data to domestic servers owned and managed by software giant Oracle.
Chew repeated that promise about Project Texas, where Oracle is headquartered.
“The bottom line is this: American data stored on American soil, by American companies, monitored by American personnel,” he said.
Ranking Democratic member Frank Pallone from New Jersey was dismissive of the plan, signaling that it will not satisfy the concerns of Congress.
“You will continue to collect data, you will continue to sell data … and continue to be under the auspices of the Communist Party,” Pallone added.
TikTok also prioritizes the safety of young users, Chew added, and he questioned the emphasis on his company.
“We believe what is needed are clear and transparent rules that apply to all technology companies,” he said.
But lawmakers from both parties brought up examples of clips promoting physical harm and drug use that were not done in a timely manner, as well as questioning the company’s efforts to limit the amount of time young people use each day.
“You have control now, but the current control is not working to keep this information especially from young people,
but from America in general,” said Diana DeGette, a Democratic congresswoman from Colorado.
The government used a widespread ban
The US, UK, Canada and New Zealand are among the countries that have recently banned the use of TikTok on government-issued phones. Norway did so on Thursday, when it also banned the use of the government’s Telegram, which was founded by its Russian brothers.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year the agency was concerned about “the possibility that the Chinese government could use it [TikTok] to control the collection of data on millions of users or to control the recommendation algorithm, which can be used for influence operations.”
The call to ban TikTok has the support of Republican lawmakers, as well as the support of Democrats.
But Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman appears to oppose a selective approach.
“Instead of banning TikTok, we need comprehensive legislation to ensure social media users’ data is safe and secure,” Bowman said on Wednesday. “Banning TikTok will not solve the problem.”
It is unclear how the ban could be enforced
A US ban on the app would be unprecedented, and it’s unclear how the government will enforce it.
Experts say officials could try to force Apple and Google to remove TikTok from the app store, preventing new users from downloading and also preventing existing users from updating, and in the end it would be futile.
The US could also block access to TikTok’s infrastructure and data, seize domain names or force internet service providers to filter TikTok data traffic, said Ahmed Ghappour, a criminal law and computer security expert who teaches at Boston University’s law school.
But tech-savvy users can still get around restrictions by using a virtual private network (VPN) to make it appear the user is in another unblocked country, he said.
David Kennedy, a former US government intelligence official who runs the cybersecurity firm TrustedSec, said limiting TikTok’s access to government-issued phones because they may contain sensitive information seems sensible, but a nationwide ban might be extreme.
He also wondered where it might lead.
“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?” Kennedy said. “It can escalate very quickly.”
The Chinese government said Thursday it would oppose a U.S. plan to force TikTok to sell its service, another possibility it has mentioned to allow the service to continue operating.
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