For practically 5 hours, Congress members of the Home Committee on Vitality & Commerce grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over considerations concerning the platform’s dangers to minor security, knowledge privateness, and nationwide safety for American customers.
“The American folks want the reality concerning the menace TikTok poses to our nationwide and private safety,” committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wa.) mentioned in her opening assertion, concluding that “TikTok is a weapon.”
Rodgers advised that even for People who’ve by no means used the app, “TikTok surveils us all, and the Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP) is ready to use this as a software to govern America as a complete.”
In his testimony, Chew defended TikTok’s $1.5 billion answer to those considerations, Challenge Texas, as a extra applicable measure than forcing a sale of TikTok from its proprietor, China-controlled ByteDance, or banning TikTok within the US. Chew mentioned that with Challenge Texas, TikTok has launched an “unprecedented” effort to be extra clear about its algorithm and knowledge assortment than some other massive tech firm.
“American firms don’t have monitor file with knowledge privateness,” Chew reminded the committee whereas repeatedly telling Congress members that the questions that they’d about TikTok mirrored industry-wide issues that go properly past one app.
Chew additionally mentioned that he’s seen “no proof” that Challenge Texas—which he mentioned would guarantee TikTok knowledge is behind a US firewall and out of China’s attain—doesn’t handle Congress’ nationwide safety considerations. Nonetheless, he refused to touch upon a whistleblower report from Tech Employees Coalition, the place a TikTok content material moderator confirmed certainly one of Congress’ worst suspicions: that ByteDance has entry to consumer knowledge that might be used to trace and spy on People.
However Congress members like Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.)—who mentioned he has extra intensive expertise with Web applied sciences than lots of his committee colleagues—led a swarm of Congress members disputing that Challenge Texas was the cure-all that Chew claimed. Obernolte mentioned that, in his opinion, it was not “technically attainable” for Challenge Texas to maintain American consumer knowledge out of China’s attain. Not solely may nefarious actors working inside Challenge Texas doubtlessly entry consumer knowledge for China, but additionally there are considerations that if TikTok shouldn’t be absolutely clear about its knowledge gross sales, China may doubtlessly buy US consumer knowledge.
As a result of The Wall Road Journal reported that China has said that it’s going to act to cease the pressured sale of TikTok, Chew was pressed on how concerned China—and the CCP—could be in TikTok operations and whether or not he thought China had the facility to cease a sale. Chew didn’t immediately deny that China may step in.
After being referred to as “evasive” throughout his testimony by a number of committee members, Chew shared some insights into TikTok-China connections, confirming that he immediately studies to China-owned ByteDance’s CEO Liang Rubo and affirming that he personally owns shares in ByteDance. Though Chew mentioned that ByteDance doesn’t require that workers disclose this data, he additionally appeared to agree that it’s probably that many ByteDance workers are CCP members.
Issues acquired private for Chew—who lives in Singapore, not China—when Congress members pressured him to reveal his personal connections to the CCP, which he repeatedly evaded. He reminded the committee that his testimony was completely about TikTok. He additionally constantly resisted responding to a number of committee members asking if he condemned Chinese language human rights abuses towards a Turkish ethnic minority in China, the Uyghurs.
“You might have completely tied your self in knots to keep away from criticizing CCP’s remedy of Uyghurs,” Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) advised Chew.
Nothing that Chew mentioned appeared to weaken the bipartisan united entrance towards TikTok that was offered by committee members.
Rick Allen (R-Ga.) pointedly mentioned that Chew gave him “no purpose to imagine” that TikTok would adjust to any American orders that battle with what the CCP needs. Though Chew regularly denied that the CCP managed TikTok—whereas remaining imprecise on many different questions—Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) mentioned it was clear to her that “ByteDance places China first and America final.” Jan Schakowsky (D-Ailing.) advised Chew that as a result of the WSJ report mentioned that China’s commerce minister has confirmed that China may block a sale of TikTok, “all of what you have been saying concerning the distance between TikTok and China has been mentioned to be not true.”
There have been many questions that Chew didn’t reply, promising as a substitute to observe up. Committee members got 10 enterprise days to submit written inquiries to TikTok. Excellent questions coated every little thing from how (and to whom) TikTok sells consumer knowledge, to how a lot TikTok income ByteDance retains, and what number of tech assets are shared between TikTok and different ByteDance-owned firms.
In his written testimony that was ready forward of the listening to, Chew maintained that “ByteDance shouldn’t be an agent of China” and made 4 guarantees to each Congress and to American TikTok customers. He vowed to maintain consumer security as a prime precedence, to forestall unauthorized international entry to American consumer knowledge, to forestall any authorities from manipulating TikTok content material, and to be clear and accountable for all these guarantees by giving entry to unbiased third-party displays to evaluate modifications in TikTok code.
However after Chew supplied his first testimony ever to Congress, Marc Veasey (D-Texas) advised Chew that he thought-about TikTok’s assurances “nugatory.”
Maybe Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) summed up the disappointing listening to finest when he advised Chew, “This hasn’t been a enjoyable day” for TikTok or for Congress.
TikTok didn’t reply to Ars’ request for touch upon the listening to.