By Haleluya Hadero and Farnoush Amiri | Related Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over information safety and dangerous content material Thursday, responding skeptically throughout a tense committee listening to to his assurances that the massively well-liked video-sharing app prioritizes person security and shouldn't be banned.
Shou Zi Chew’s uncommon public look got here at a vital time for the corporate, which has 150 million American customers however is below growing stress from U.S. officers. TikTok and its Chinese language dad or mum firm, ByteDance, have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over commerce and know-how.
In a bipartisan effort to rein within the energy of a serious social media platform, Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressed Chew on a number of subjects, starting from TikTok’s content material moderation practices, how the corporate plans to safe American information from Beijing, and its spying on journalists.
“Mr. Chew, you're right here as a result of the American folks want the reality concerning the risk TikTok poses to our nationwide and private safety,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, mentioned in her opening assertion.
Chew, a 40-year-old Singapore native, informed the Home Committee on Vitality and Commerce that TikTok prioritizes the protection of its younger customers and denied it’s a nationwide safety danger. He reiterated the corporate’s plan to guard U.S. person information by storing it on servers maintained and owned by the software program big Oracle.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance shouldn't be an agent of China or every other nation,” Chew mentioned.
TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese language possession means person information might find yourself within the arms of the Chinese language authorities or that it could possibly be used to advertise narratives favorable to the nation’s Communist leaders.
In 2019, the Guardian reported that TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor movies that point out Tiananmen Sq. and pictures unfavorable to the Chinese language authorities. The platform says it has since modified its moderation practices.
ByteDance admitted in December that it fired 4 workers final summer season who accessed information on two journalists and other people linked to them whereas making an attempt to uncover the supply of a leaked report concerning the firm.
For its half, TikTok has been attempting to distance itself from its Chinese language origins, saying 60% p.c of ByteDance is owned by international institutional buyers resembling Carlyle Group.
“Possession shouldn't be on the core of addressing these issues,” Chew mentioned.
China has additionally mentioned it might oppose any U.S. makes an attempt to drive ByteDance to promote the app.
In probably the most dramatic moments, Republican Rep. Kat Cammack performed a TikTok video that confirmed a taking pictures gun with a caption that included the Home committee holding the listening to, with the precise date earlier than it was formally introduced.
“You anticipate us to imagine that you're able to sustaining the information safety, privateness and safety of 150 million Individuals the place you possibly can’t even defend the folks on this room,” Cammack mentioned.
TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe mentioned the corporate on Thursday eliminated the violent video aimed on the committee and banned the account that posted it.
Chew additionally famous the failure of U.S. social media corporations to handle the very issues for which TikTok was being criticized.
“American social corporations don’t have a great observe file with information privateness and person safety,” he mentioned. “Take a look at Fb and Cambridge Analytica, only one instance.”
Because the Vitality and Commerce committee questioned Chew, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was questioned concerning the risk TikTok poses at a separate committee listening to Thursday. Requested by Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican of Colorado, if the platform is a safety risk to the US, Blinken mentioned: “I imagine it's.”
“Shouldn’t a risk to United States safety be banned?” Buck responded.
“It needs to be ended a technique or one other. However there are alternative ways of doing that,” Blinken responded.
Committee members additionally confirmed a number of TikTok movies that inspired customers to hurt themselves and commit suicide. Many questioned why the platform’s Chinese language counterpart, Douyin, doesn't carry the identical controversial and probably harmful content material because the American product.
Chew responded that it relies on the legal guidelines of the nation the place the app is working. He mentioned the corporate has about 40,000 moderators that observe dangerous content material and an algorithm that flags materials.
Wealth administration agency Wedbush described the listening to as a “catastrophe” for TikTok that made a ban extra probably if the social media platform doesn’t separate from its Chinese language dad or mum. Emile El Nems, an analyst at Moody’s Traders Service, mentioned a ban would profit TikTok rivals YouTube, Instagram and Snap, “probably leading to greater income share of the overall promoting pockets.”
To keep away from a ban, TikTok has been attempting to promote officers on a $1.5 billion plan, Challenge Texas, which routes all U.S. person information to Oracle. Below the challenge, entry to U.S. information is managed by U.S. workers via a separate entity referred to as TikTok U.S. Information Safety, which is run independently of ByteDance and monitored by exterior observers.
As of October, all new U.S. person information was being saved contained in the nation. The corporate began deleting all historic U.S. person information from non-Oracle servers this month, in a course of anticipated to be accomplished this 12 months, Chew mentioned.
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw famous that no matter what the corporate does to guarantee lawmakers it can defend U.S. person information, the Chinese language authorities can nonetheless have vital affect over its dad or mum firm and ask it to show over information via its nationwide safety legal guidelines.
Congress, the White Home, U.S. armed forces and greater than half of U.S. states have already banned the usage of the app from official gadgets.
However wiping away all the information monitoring related to the platform may show troublesome. In a report launched this month, the cybersecurity firm Feroot mentioned so-called monitoring pixels from ByteDance, which gather person info, have been discovered on 30 U.S state web sites, together with some the place the app has been banned.
Different nations together with Denmark, Canada, Nice Britain and New Zealand, together with the European Union, have already banned TikTok from government-issued gadgets.
An entire TikTok ban within the U.S. would danger political and well-liked backlash.
The corporate despatched dozens of well-liked TikTokers to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to foyer lawmakers to protect the platform. And a dozen civil rights and free speech organizations, together with the American Civil Liberties Union and PEN America, have signed a letter opposing a wholesale TikTok ban, arguing it might set a “harmful precedent for the restriction of speech.”
David Kennedy, a former authorities intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity firm TrustedSec, mentioned he agrees with limiting TikTok entry on government-issued telephones however that a nationwide ban is perhaps too excessive.
“Now we have Tesla in China, we've Microsoft in China, we've Apple in China. Are they going to begin banning us now?” Kennedy mentioned. “It might escalate in a short time.”
Related Press reporters Kelvin Chan in London and Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this story.