奇宝库 > TikTok CEO Says Not Much Room for Clarifying Facts in Congress Hearing

TikTok CEO Says Not Much Room for Clarifying Facts in Congress Hearing

BEIJING, March 24 (TMTPOST) – Chinese short video company ByteDance’s subsidiary TikTok CEO Show Zi Chew said Friday in an internal letter that he was not given much room to clarify the facts in Thursday’slengthyU.S. congress hearing about the company’s operations in the United States.

On Thursday, Chew answered questions on data security, national security threats and related issues during his testimonybefore the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.During the hearing, over 50 members of Congress asked many aggressive and harsh questionsregarding Chow’s defense. They painted TikTok as a danger to national security, alleging that it violatedpeople’s privacy, harmedthe mental wellbeing of adolescents, and played a partin the deaths of some young individuals.

Following the hearing, Chew shared an internal letter with his colleagues atByteDance, describing the hearing as challengingandsaying that there was not muchroom for him to clarify the facts“as anticipated.”He added that he said a lot in the hearingthat lastedover five hours and he was “still digestingit.”He also reiterated TikTok’s commitmentto protecting youth safety, data privacy, and other issuesof concern.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, aRepublicanfrom Washington state and chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, stated, “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.” In response, Chowargued that a ban on TikTok would be a setback for free speech. The app, which supportsa myriad ofsmall businesses and creators, has150 million users in the United States. He also emphasized that there are also 5 million U.S. business users on the platform, many of whom are small or medium-sized businesses. This implies that prohibiting the app would negatively impact a vast number of individuals and businesses that rely on TikTok for income.

Lawmakers also alleged TikTok had a negative impact on America’s youth. Currently, 67 percent of American teenagers use the app, but it has faced criticism for being too addictive and potentially exposing them to harmful content. Representative Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, accused TikTok of prioritizing profits over child safety. “TikTok could be designed to minimize the harm to kids, but a decision was made to aggressively addict kids in the name of profits,”said Castor.In response, Chow stated that the app has been working to limit the repetition of potentially harmful content, such as videos featuring extreme sports. He alsomentioned that TikTok’s guidelines prohibit content that promotes self-harm or eating disorders.

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Beijing. Recently, the app has faced bans on government phones in several countries, including the United States and Britain. Last week, the U.S. government demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their sharesand said that the app would risk a ban in the U.S. otherwise. Hours before the hearing, China’s Commerce Ministry said that the Chinese government had the power to veto the sale. “The sale or divestiture of TikTok involves technology export issues and must follow administrative licensing procedures according to Chinese laws and regulations, and the Chinese government will make a decision in accordance with the law,” a spokesperson said.

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