TikTok CEO was interrogated for more than five hours on China, drugs, and teen mental health.
At a testy congressional hearing on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had to defend his company's relationship with China and its protections for its youngest users amid a bipartisan push to ban the app in the US over national security concerns.
The 40-year-old Chew, who has kept a low profile as TikTok's popularity grows, appeared before US lawmakers for the first time at the hearing. Despite having tens of millions of US users, lawmakers have long worried about China's control over TikTok, which Chew tried to allay throughout the hearing. Chew testified Thursday that ByteDance is not a Chinese agent.
The committee began by grilling Chew on his links to ByteDance officials, whom legislators allege to have ties to the Chinese Communist party. The committee members queried how often Chew spoke with them and if the company's proposed data security solutions would guard against Chinese rules that mandate corporations to share user data with the government.
A Wall Street Journal piece released hours before the hearing suggested China would vehemently oppose any forced sale of the firm, undermining Chew's claims of independence. For the first time, the Chinese commerce ministry responded to Joe Biden's threat of a nationwide ban until ByteDance sells its shares by saying that exporting Chinese technology would require official approval.
Since March 2021, Chew, a former Goldman Sachs banker, has led the firm. Legislators questioned him on the platform's mental health effects, particularly on teenage users. Republican congressman Gus Bilirakis told the story of Chase Nasca, a 16-year-old who killed himself by walking in front of a train a year earlier. Nasca's parents, who sued ByteDance for "targeting" Chase with self-harm content, attended the hearing and cried as Bilirakis related their son's tale.
Bilirakis thanked his parents for being present. “Mr. Chew, your firm devastated their lives.”
Congresswoman Nanette Barragán confronted Chew about claims that he does not allow his children to use the app, emphasising worries about young users.
“What age do you think a young person should get on TikTok?” she said.
Chew claimed his children were not on TikTok since Singapore does not have a version for under-13s.
Chew, who has kept a quiet profile during his two years as CEO, began his five-hour statement by emphasising his Singaporean origin and TikTok's independence from the Chinese government. Chew discussed Project Texas, an initiative to relocate all US data to domestic servers, and claimed the business will delete all US customer data stored up to foreign servers by the end of the year.
Several legislators doubted Project Texas could address US data privacy issues quickly. “I am afraid that what you're proposing with Project Texas just doesn't have the technological capacity of providing us the guarantees that we need,” said California Republican Jay Obernolte, a software engineer.
California Democrat Tony Cárdenas questioned Chew if TikTok is Chinese. Chew said TikTok is worldwide, based in Singapore and Los Angeles, and unavailable in mainland China.
Florida Republican Neal Dunn inquired whether ByteDance had "spied on American people" amid claims that the corporation had accessed journalists' data to find leakers. Chew said, “spying is not the correct term to characterise it”. Chew warned TikTok viewers that the business was at a "pivotal moment" in a video earlier this week.
He added that TikTok currently has over 150 million active monthly American users. “TikTok has approximately half the US.”
During its 2018 surge, TikTok has faced legislative challenges. According to the Pew Research Center, 67% of American youths aged 13-17 use TikTok, and 16% use it "very consistently."
Self-harm and eating disorder information on the app has sparked safety concerns for teenage users. TikTok is also being sued for lethal "challenges" that went viral. In response to criticism, TikTok added features including automatic time limitations for under-18s.
Three years after the Trump administration issued an executive order banning US firms from doing business with ByteDance, TikTok is being heard. On June 2021, Biden reversed the order, requiring the US foreign investment committee to evaluate the firm. While that review stagnated, Biden suggested TikTok sell its Chinese-owned shares or risk a US ban.
Cárdenas noted that Chew "has been one of the few persons to unify this committee" during the hearing.
Other politicians compared Chew's testimony to Mark Zuckerberg's April 2018 hearing on Facebook's data-privacy problems, which many lawmakers found unsatisfactory. "TikTok frustrates us," Cárdenas stated. You constantly discuss industry challenges that TikTok and others confront. When Mark Zuckerberg visited here, I said he reminded me of Fred Astaire—a brilliant dancer with words. As you are now. Several of your responses are ambiguous.
TikTok's data collecting raises worries, but tech critics say it's similar to other large internet companies.
“Holding TikTok and China responsible step in the right way, but doing so without holding other platforms accountable is just not enough,” stated the Tech Oversight Project, a technology policy advocacy organisation.
“Lawmakers and regulators should utilise this week's hearing to re-engage with civil society groups, NGOs, academics, and activists to crush all of big tech's damaging practises.”
