TikTok CEO Testifying Before Congress As The Platform Faces a Ban Over Ties With China

Detailed Notes

• Testimony of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew Before Congress
  
  •CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday about national security concerns stemming from the platform’s parent company ByteDance, based in China.
  
  •FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that TikTok has the power to “drive narratives” and “divide Americans” through the manipulation of its content algorithm.
  
  •ByteDance is required by law to comply with requests made by the Chinese Communist Party.
  
  •Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has been looking into TikTok since 2019 and threatened to ban it unless ByteDance divests its stake in the platform’s U.S. operations.
  
  •Biden administration is implementing the removal of TikTok from government devices as required by a bipartisan law enacted last year.
  
  •The RESTRICT Act introduced by Sens. John Thune and Mark Warner would give the federal government the ability to investigate and potentially ban problematic technology products that have ties to adversarial countries.
  
  •Thune noted the connections between TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and the Chinese government as being deeply troubling.
• Investigations into ByteDance’s U.S. Data Collection Practices
  
  •It was reported last year that China-based employees of ByteDance accessed non-public data about U.S. users, prompting Congress to introduce a bipartisan restriction act to investigate and potentially ban technology products made in adversarial countries.
  
  •The app collects imagery, objects, biometric identifiers, activities on other websites, and content of messages, which it uses to target videos, ads, and political messages.
  
  •ByteDance is reportedly under investigation by the Justice Department and FBI for using the app to surveil U.S. journalists.
  
  •FBI Director Wray testified that Chinese-owned TikTok has power to “drive narratives” and “divide Americans”.
  
  •To satisfy CFIUS concerns, TikTok is forming a subsidiary called TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. to oversee the protection of American users’ data.
  
  •Chew testified that ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.
• Congress Urged to Act After TikTok Reaches 150 Million American Users
  
  •Chew’s recent video emphasises the need for Congress to act due to the sensitive information the Chinese Communist Party can collect from the 150 million US users.
  
  •Chris Pandolfo and Danielle Wallace of Fox Business contributed reporting to the story.
  
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