TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to appear before the US Energy and Trade Committee in March as lawmakers scrutinize the Chinese video-sharing app.
Chew will testify before the committee on March 23 in what will be his first appearance before a congressional committee, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee’s Republican chair, said in a statement Monday.
The news comes as the House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to vote next month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of TikTok in the United States over national security concerns.
“Owned by ByteDance Tick tock knowingly provided the Chinese Communist Party with an opportunity to access American user data,” McMorris Rodgers said, adding that Americans deserve to know how these actions affect their privacy and data security.
TikTok on Monday confirmed Chew will testify.
“We welcome the opportunity to clarify the records of TikTok, ByteDance and the commitments we are making to address U.S. national security concerns before the House Energy and Commerce Committee,” a company spokesman said, adding the hopes of the By “sharing” the company, sharing details of our broader plans with the entire committee allows Congress to approach the issues at hand more cautiously.”
The company also said, “Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ claim that TikTok provided US user data to the Chinese Communist Party is not true. The Chinese Communist Party has no direct or indirect control over ByteDance or TikTok.”
McMorris Rodgers and other Republican lawmakers have called for more information from TikTok. They want to know the impact on young people amid concerns about harmful content and would like additional details on the potential sexual exploitation of minors on the platform, the statement said.
For three years, TikTok — with more than 100 million US users — has been trying to reassure Washington that US citizens’ personal information is inaccessible and its content cannot be tampered with by the Chinese Communist Party or anyone else under Beijing’s influence.
The US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security agency, has ordered 2020 ByteDance Selling TikTok over concerns that US user data could be leaked to the Chinese government.
CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for more than two years to finalize a national security agreement to protect the privacy of US TikTok users. The White House on Friday declined to comment on whether it would support a legal ban on TikTok or the state of the talks.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
