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Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, came under fire from both sides of the political aisle on Capitol Hill on Thursday as senators raised severe national security concerns about the Chinese-owned tech company and the danger it allegedly poses to the 150 million Americans who use the app.
In her opening remarks at the hearing with Chew on Thursday, House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) claimed that TikTok “surveils us all and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole.” We have little faith that TikTok would ever uphold American principles. Your website ought to be taken down.
The Biden administration has demanded that ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, sell the app or risk a ban, even as influential congressmen from both parties push for action. This is the first time a TikTok CEO has testified before Congress, and the stakes are high. TikTok’s operations in the United States, according to U.S. national security authorities, are a threat because the Chinese Communist Party may utilize the app and the extensive user data it gathers to spy on citizens and other government agencies.
Chew attempted to dispel what he called “myths” regarding TikTok’s connection to Beijing. In his appearance before the committee, he claimed that the Chinese government neither owns nor controls ByteDance.
He claimed TikTok has offices in Los Angeles and Singapore, that it has never given the Chinese government access to user data from American users, and that American data is stored in the United States.
He declared, “TikTok will be a platform for free expression and will not be used as a tool by any government.”
It will be politically challenging for the Biden administration to take any significant action because the app is extremely popular in the United States, especially among younger Americans. Only the largest and wealthiest tech corporations could conceivably afford it given its massive user base, and a sale to one of those giants would almost certainly be opposed by Biden’s antitrust regulators, who have been mounting a strong battle to reign in Big Tech businesses like Google and Facebook.
The White House is still moving forward. The Chinese owners of TikTok have apparently been informed that they must sell the app or risk an outright ban by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a covert panel made up of several Biden administration agencies. Meanwhile, TikTok has been outlawed on state government devices in more than 30 states, and President Joseph Biden signed legislation last year outlawing the app on all federal devices.
Yet, an outright ban may enrage younger voters, not to mention the many content producers who have been lobbying Capitol Hill recently to oppose such a step.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s chair, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), stated in remarks on Thursday that if the app were to be completely outlawed, its developers would find another home. Warner said on CNN, “I absolutely believe in the market if TikTok were to drop away tomorrow.” “There will be a replacement site where people can still be creative and earn that kind of living,” said the speaker, “whether it’s an American company, a French company, or an Indian company.”
Even though TikTok has been ingrained in American popular culture, Washington has been debating what to do about it for years.
According to reports, TikTok and the Biden administration reached an agreement last fall to establish TikTok U.S. Data Security, a separate U.S. organization with its own board of directors that is authorized by the administration and ensures that all U.S. data is secured and kept on American servers run by Oracle. But since since, the two sides have been at odds about potential threats to national security.
The Trump administration also attempted to block the app in the United States by drafting an executive order in 2020, but this effort was unsuccessful. Any attempt by the current White House to outright ban the app would almost certainly encounter similar legal challenges after that effort was swiftly overturned by a U.S. court.
A bipartisan group of senators is preparing legislation that they claim will support Biden in his efforts to implement a ban in light of their prior failures.
Chew’s prepared testimony was used by Warner and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to support their legislation, the RESTRICT Act, which would allow the executive branch to ban some technologies from foreign foes. Warner stated in a statement: “Although I appreciate Mr. Chew’s willingness to speak before Congress, TikTok’s lack of transparency, persistent obfuscation, and factual errors have gravely damaged the credibility of any claims by TikTok personnel, including Mr. Chew.
