Washington:
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the US Congress amid growing security concerns and potential influence of the Chinese government on the company.
Chew faced hostile questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee as he verbally danced to demonstrate that the social media giant is taking “real action” to improve the national
security issues from the US.
During a four-hour hearing, Chew insisted time and time again that the TikTok app, owned by Chinese technology company Bytedance, has long maintained that it does not share data with the Chinese government and poses no risk to its 150 million users in the US. do not share their data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
US lawmaker Debbie Lesko, during her questioning, cited India and other countries that have recently banned TikTok in one form or another.
“This (TikTok) is a tool that is ultimately under the control of the Chinese government and screams with national security concerns, Mr. Chew, how can all these countries and our FBI director be wrong?” Lesko asked.
“I think a lot of the risks mentioned are hypothetical and theoretical risks. I haven’t seen any evidence,” Chew replied.
The congresswoman repeated once again, emphasizing the ban on India. India banned TikTok in 2020. On March 21, a Forbes article revealed how data from Indian citizens using TikTok remained accessible to employees of the company and its Beijing-based parent company. A current TikTok employee told Forbes that almost anyone with basic access to business tools can easily look up the closest contact person and other sensitive information about a user,” Lesko informed her colleagues.
“This is a recent paper; I asked my team to look at it. We have strict data access protocols. There’s no such thing as anyone having access to the tools. So I disagree with a lot of the conclusions,” Chew replied . .
India imposed a nationwide ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including the messaging app WeChat, in 2020 over privacy and security concerns. The ban came shortly after a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at LAC that killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured dozens. The companies were given a chance to respond to questions about privacy and security requirements, but the ban was made permanent in January 2021.
“You know damn well you can’t protect the data and security of this committee or your app’s 150 million users because it’s an extension of the CCP,” Florida lawmaker Kat Cammack told Chew after playing a threatening video which could still be seen. the platform more than a month after it was posted, despite community guidelines prohibiting violence or threats.
Asked at a congressional hearing by Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, TikTok’s chief couldn’t “guarantee 100 percent” that Beijing was not interfering with parts of the app. Chew said the company is committed to protecting U.S. user data from “all unwanted foreign access” and keeping content “free from any manipulation by any government.”
Another New Jersey lawmaker said he wasn’t convinced TikTok’s security plans would work. “I still believe Beijing’s communist government will still control and influence what you do,” he said, pushing back on what he said was TikTok’s attempt to portray itself as “a good-natured company that simply performing a public service”. .. I’m not buying it.”
Hours before the hearing, China repeatedly said it would not oppose a forced sale of TikTok, with the Commerce Ministry saying any sale would involve the export of Chinese technology and must be approved by the Chinese government.
TikTok is already banned on federal government devices, including military devices, and a growing number of states in the US are banning it on state government devices.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)