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Editor’s note on Mar. 24, 7:30pm: A previous version of this article inaccurately reported that Chew would not allow his children to use the children version of TikTok. We have since corrected this to reflect the correct statement made during the hearing.
On Mar. 23, U.S. lawmakers grilled TikTok's chief executive and Singaporean entrepreneur Chew Shou Zi on possible influence by China's government on the app and its alleged detrimental effects on youth’s mental health, Reuters reported.
Chew, 40, appeared to testify before the U.S. Congress for the first time about TikTok’s stance amid calls to ban the app and rising scepticism among American politicians over security issues.
The testimony took approximately five hours. Chew repeatedly denied that TikTok shared U.S. user data to China or had ties with the Chinese government, in line with his written statement of testimony.
He reiterated that the platform prioritised the safety of its users, with more than 150 million active users in the U.S., according to Reuters.
Stressed TikTok’s independence
Chew opened by trying to "distance himself" from China, such as sharing how he had been born and raised in Singapore, studied in the UK and worked in the U.S, according to CNBC News.
TikTok’s ties to its parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, was a hot topic.
Chew was asked whether ByteDance’s staff could access U.S. user data and if the company aligned itself or had connections with the government of China.
The CEO remarked that the app was not available in China, was “headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore”, and employed 7,000 staff in the U.S. "We do not promote or remove content at the request of the Chinese government," he emphasised.
However, Chew revealed that staff based in China still had access to U.S. data, though this would be mitigated by the ongoing Project Texas, a plan by TikTok to work with Oracle, a Texas-based company, to store the data of U.S. users.
In a development that was perhaps not to Chew's advantage, the Chinese commerce ministry expressed their opposition to the forced sale of TikTok, Wall Street Journal reported.
This was in response to an earlier threat to ban the app if its founding owners in China did not sell their stakes.
Impact on children
Other than questions on user data, some lawmakers also accused TikTok of promoting harmful content to children, according to Reuters.
Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ), said that research demonstrated TikTok’s algorithm recommend videos that promote “suicide, self-harm and eating disorders,” according to CNN.
Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL) was quoted by Reuters as saying that “TikTok could be designed to minimise the harm to kids, but a decision was made to aggressively addict kids in the name of profits.”
Chew was also asked about whether his children used TikTok, in which he replied that they did not.
He added that he would allow them to use the children’s version of the app if they were in the U.S., according to the BBC.
TikTok had recently launched features to enhance the safety for younger users, such as a daily time limit for those under 18.
However, this was not spared from criticism by lawmakers who claimed that the feature was too easy to bypass, CNN reported.
Washington not convinced
Ultimately, U.S. lawmakers seemed to be unsatisfied with Chew’s answers.
Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA) remarked that though it was the “most bipartisan committee in Congress”, but all the lawmakers somehow agreed that TikTok was a threat, BBC reported.
Chew was accused of avoiding tough questions on the impact of TikTok on children and also giving indirect responses, according to Reuters and CNN.
Several times, the CEO was asked by the lawmakers to answer only "yes or no" to their questions after he attempted to explain or clarify.
“We aren’t buying it” said Representative Cathy Anne McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who also claimed that “TikTok is a weapon by the Chinese Communist Party” for espionage, manipulation and exploitation.
Another Representative, Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DL), even commented that Chew’s testimony had “raised more questions [...] than answers”, demonstrating that lawmakers remain unsatisfied with the CEO’s answers, CNBC reported.
A parallel
At one point, California Representative Tony Cárdenas highlighted the similarity of Chew’s “nebulous” responses with that of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, The Guardian reported.
In 2018, Zuckerberg - also a leader of a major social media platform - testified before Congress over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
In the same year, a top Facebook representative was also grilled in Singapore’s Parliament over the issue of fake news.
TikTok in the spotlight
The congressional hearing came three years after the Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok over national security concerns.
The company and app has since been caught in legislative and political headwinds, according to The Guardian.
A TikTok spokesperson told CNN that Chew was prepared to answer questions from U.S. lawmakers, but the session was “dominated by political grandstanding that failed to acknowledge the real solutions already underway.”
The British Parliament became the latest body to ban TikTok from government devices, while other countries have taken similar actions, according to Reuters.
The Smart Nation and Digital Government Group in Singapore has announced that TikTok would only be allowed to be downloaded onto government-issued devices on a "need-to" basis.
It remains unclear whether legislation will be passed in the U.S. to ban TikTok in light of the hearing.
You can watch the full video of the session here.
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Top image via Youtube/C-SPan