Lawmakers turn up the heat on TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew in high-stakes hearing
Lawmakers from both parties turned up the heat on TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew in a high-stakes hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday about the safety and security of the immensely popular app.
"To the American people watching today, hear this: TikTok is a weapon by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on you and manipulate what you see and exploit for future generations," said Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.
During his first-ever appearance on Capitol Hill, Chew faced a range of hostile questions about TikTok, the most-downloaded app in the world in 2022, and its Chinese owner Bytedance. His appearance comes soon White House officials have told TikTok that it must divest from ByteDance, or face a severe punishment in the U.S., including the possibility of a ban.
Top White House officials, and a growing chorus of bipartisan lawmakers, are continuing to view TikTok as a threat, fearing that China's authoritarian regime could use TikTok data to spy on, or blackmail, the millions of Americans who use the app every day.
And even though there is no evidence that the Chinese government has attempted to gain access to TikTok data, the company has admitted that employees in China accessed the data of U.S. users who were journalists reporting on company leaks — an incident now being investigated by Justice Department.
During the hearing, Chew was grilled by lawmakers who repeatedly asked the executive if the app shares data with the Chinese government.
When asked if TikTok employees can spy on or target people in the U.S., Chew didn't answer directly.
"We will protect U.S. user data and file it all from all unwanted foreign access is a commitment that we've given to the committee," he said. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
