TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew’s appearance in Congress on Thursday did little to calm the bipartisan fury directed at the viral video-sharing service.
If anything, his more than four hours of testimony gave critics more fuel to insist the app be banned in the US.
Chew said TikTok is independent of its Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, and the platform’s headquarters are in Singapore and Los Angeles.“The bottom line is this is American data on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,” Chew said. He could not unequivocally say that no ByteDance employees have access to that data, saying rather that he’s “seen no evidence” of that happening.
Michelle and Dean Nasca, whose 16-year-old son died by suicide after using TikTok, were present and the hearing. The couple is suing ByteDance, alleging that TikTok sent their son more than 1000 videos related to suicide, hopelessness and self-harm.The family’s lawyer Matthew Bergman said during a break that Chew’s testimony “gives truth to the term obfuscation” and said he was gratified to see bipartisan support for preventing more tragedies.
The room was overflowing with TikTokers who credit the app with giving them a voice or growing their small business. But the committee members weren’t assuaged, firing rapid-fire questions to Chew.“Congressman, you’re giving me no time to answer the questions, I reject the characterisations,” Chew said after an exchange with Representative Neal Dunn, a Florida Republican.
“We believe we are the only company — the only company — that applies this level of transparency,” Chew said emphatically about the privacy measures the company has put in place.
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