UPDATE, 9:24 a.m. PT: As TikTok’s CEO hears from members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, several voiced support for a ban on the social media site.
As in previous hearings with tech CEOs, lawmakers singled out instances of extreme content posted on the site.
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) played video of a user spreading the date of the hearing with a photo of an assault weapon. The committee chairman’s name, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), also appears in the clip.
Cammack said the post has been on the platform for 41 days and poses a “direct threat to the chairman of this committee, the people of this room. And yet it remains on the platform.”
Speaking to CEO Shou Chew, Cammack said, “You expect us to believe that you’re able to protect the data security, privacy and security of 150 million Americans when you can’t even protect the people in that space? I think it’s a blatant display of how vulnerable people are using TikTok.”
Chew asked for an answer, but McMorris Rodgers moved to the next legislature.
Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) later noted that TikTok removed the video during the hearing. “I was told during the break that they were out,” said Chew.
“This shows the great challenge we face,” he said.
Another member raised concerns about TikTok user videos promoting suicide. Chew said they provide resources for anyone entering suicide information, but Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) complained that he was “reluctant” to answer if he had “full responsibility” for TikTok’s algorithms prioritizing content.
“Their technology literally leads to death,” said Bilirakis.
Chew was also asked if TikTok would be willing to part ways with ByteDance. “I don’t think ownership is the problem here. Sincerely, American Social [media] Organizations do not have a good record when it comes to privacy and user security. I mean look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, just one example.”
He said it was important to “firewall” US data and “allow third parties to see it and make sure everyone is comfortable.”
EARLIER: The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee opened a hearing with TikTok’s CEO by telling him that “your platform should be banned.”
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said “banning your platform would address the immediate threats” as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle labeled the social media giant, whose parent company is Chinese tech company ByteDance, as a national security threat and exposed is privacy. The hugely popular service has more than a billion monthly active users, including more than 150 million in the United States.
She said: “To Americans watching today, hear this: TikTok is a weapon used by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on you, manipulate what you watch, and use it for generations to come.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), said he agreed with much of what Rodgers said, echoing bipartisan criticism of TikTok.
TikTok is already banned for employees of US government agencies. Last week, the Biden administration insisted that TikTok parent company ByteDance either sell the platform or face a ban. The Trump administration previously tried to force the sale of TikTok’s US business to an American company and then remove the platform from app stores here. Courts have rejected preliminary injunctions to ban the app and efforts have failed, but concerns remain high.
A group of senators led by Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Thune (R-SD) introduced legislation this month, the RESTRICT Act, which would give the federal government new powers to restrict technology from China and five other countries prohibit. . Dear American opponents, bypass the courts.
Shou Chew, the company’s chief executive, has sought to fend off bipartisan attacks from lawmakers and their concerns about a lack of security measures to prevent Chinese authorities from accessing user data. He repeatedly referred to a “firewall” called Project Texas, still in the works, intended to prevent unauthorized access to data by China, with Oracle storing the data in the US. All data will be “under the protection of US law and under the control of the US-led security team.”
“We developed Project Texas to protect the interests of American users,” Chew said.
However, committee members seemed to have little interest in examining the details of the schedule or the plan’s potential effectiveness. Meanwhile, Chew admitted that until Project Texas is implemented, the data is currently not secure.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told Chew that while he talked about a “firewall” to protect user data, the Chinese government “has that data.”
“How can you promise it will go to the United States and be protected here?”
Chew replied: “I have not seen any evidence that the Chinese government has access to this data. You never asked us. We didn’t provide.”
Eshoo replied, “I actually think it’s ridiculous.”
He won no brownie points by refusing to provide financial data for TikTok, such as: B. Revenue or how much it earns for parent company ByteDance. TikTok is a private company, so this is not public information. The Commission took advantage of the fact that TikTok and ByteDance share a General Board in the US and that the two companies share employees, some in China.
Lawmakers also pressed Chew with a second line of attack related to the broader ills of social media — from disinformation and hate speech to algorithms that destroy mental health and especially teenagers — separate from the Chinese check issue. Chew detailed the measures the company has taken to protect teenagers on the platform from parental control time limits. However, he repeatedly pointed out that these are issues that affect the entire social media ecosystem.
Executives from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Google and YouTube owner Microsoft, Twitter and other social media platforms have also been called several times to testify amid an ongoing conflict over Section 230 on the Hill. This decades-old provision — the old Communications Decency Act — grants Internet companies legal immunity for most content on their websites.
Calls to ban TikTok have sparked backlash from platform makers, who appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to fight the restrictions. Other concerns have been raised about the impact of such a move on the First Amendment. PEN America and more than a dozen other groups released a letter related to the hearing against a US ban on TikTok.
Chew also made it a point to tell lawmakers that he was born in Singapore and later moved to the UK, studied in the US and married an American, and that TikTok is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore is.
“Today, US TikTok data is stored on Oracle servers by default. Only verified personnel working at a new company called TikTok US Data Security can control access to that data,” Chew pointed out. But early in the trial, it was clear that lawmakers deemed these measures insufficient. McMorris Rodgers disputed Chew’s claim that TikTok parent company ByteDance is not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Chew said that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors, including the Carlyle Group and General Atlantic, and another 20% is owned by ByteDance employees. The other 20% belongs to the company’s founder, who is “a private individual and not part of any state or government agency,” according to the company. TikTok spokespeople also say ByteDance does not have a global headquarters.
But lawmakers said the problem is that the CCP has de facto control over all Chinese companies, public and private.
There is more to come
Source: Deadline
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
