TikTok’s boss shall be grilled on Capitol Hill as a growing variety of US lawmakers call for the favored Chinese-owned app to be banned over national security concerns.
CEO Shou Zi Chew will face questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee about TikTok’s “consumer privacy and data security practices, the platforms’ impact on kids, and their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party,” in accordance with a release Monday.
The March 23 hearing will mark the primary time Chew has testified on Capitol Hill.
“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the power for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,” committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said in a press release.
“Americans should understand how these actions impact their privacy and data security, in addition to what actions TikTok is taking to maintain our youngsters secure from online and offline harms,” Rodgers added.
TikTok confirmed that Chew would testify, but fired back at Rodgers’ characterization of its business. The corporate has long denied that ByteDance employees can access US data, despite multiple reports on the contrary.
“There isn’t a truth to Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ claim that TikTok has made U.S. user data available to the Chinese Communist Party,” the corporate said in a press release. “The Chinese Communist Party has neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok.”
“We welcome the chance to set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we’re making to handle concerns about U.S. national security before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,” the corporate added.
TikTok has faced intense bipartisan scrutiny over its parent company ByteDance’s ties to Beijing and fears that the Chinese government has access to the private data of US users. Critics have also raised concerns concerning the app’s impact on the mental health of young users.
TikTok is one of the vital widely-used apps on the earth, with greater than 100 million users within the US alone.
Earlier this month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), an outspoken critic of Big Tech firms, said he planned to introduce a bill to ban TikTok inside the US.
The senator described the app as “China’s backdoor into Americans’ lives” and said it “threatens our youngsters’s privacy in addition to their mental health.”
In December, US lawmakers passed a bipartisan spending bill that included a provision banning the downloading and use of TikTok on government-owned devices. The clause included limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security or research purposes.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, has also called for a ban on TikTok, though the agency lacks regulatory oversight over the app.
In November, Carr argued that TikTok wouldn’t have the opportunity to adequately address concerns that Beijing could improperly access the information of US-based TikTok users.
TikTok has been in negotiations for years with the Council on Foreign Investment within the US (CFIUS), an interagency committee that reviews foreign investment within the country, on a possible resolution that will allow it to avoid an outright ban.
With Post wires
