United States lawmakers have questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over potential Chinese influence on the video-sharing app and its danger to children’s mental health.
The 40-year-old Singaporean was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats who fear that Beijing could corrupt the site for spying, data harvesting and advancing a Chinese Communist Party agenda.
Lawmakers from the House Energy and Commerce Committee gave no respite, denying Chew the chance to expand on his answers.
In one particularly heated exchange, Chew was forced to acknowledge that some personal data of Americans was still subject to Chinese law but insisted that would soon be changed.
Moreover, the US representatives confronted Chew with dire examples of young users promoting suicide or dangerous stunts that have proved fatal and angered authorities globally.
On the other hand, Chew bared the company’s elaborate plan, known as Project Texas, to satisfy national security concerns, under which the handling of US data will be ring-fenced into a US-run division.
However, lawmakers said it would do nothing to remove their concerns that TikTok was vulnerable to China.
Meanwhile, supporters of TikTok and free speech activists criticized the hearing as political theater and urged against an outright ban.
