TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s Congress showdown: Five key moments
At the US congressional hearing on Thursday, Mr. Shou Zi Chew‘s time in the spotlight totaled more than “four and a half hours” as members of Congress directed tough questioning his way. Comparatively, that amounts to a considerable span of time, more than what is typically required to conclude a “marathon.”
The relentless interrogations and criticisms took a toll on Mr. Chew, evidencing the high expectations that the Congress has for tech executives, as worded by one of the members. This hearing was particularly notable for the mercilessness and relentlessness of its questioning.
Both Democrats and Republicans provided relentless questioning, and a spokesperson for TikTok said afterward that the political figures were “grandstanding“. Although there is merit to this idea, the exhaustive queries yielded some insight.
Credit: Google
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1. Legislators from both sides of the political aisle voiced criticism of TikTok and showed a strong degree of mistrust and skepticism.
“Welcome to the most bipartisan committee in Congress,” said Republican congressman Buddy Carter. “Thank you, Mr Chew, for bringing Republicans and Democrats together,” said Dan Crenshaw, a Republican present there.
– It was inspiring to observe the convergence of political leaders, typically mired in divides, wholeheartedly declaring TikTok to be a security hazard. Subsequent to the proclamation, TikTok asserted that insufficient emphasis had been allocated to the platform’s initiatives to protect users’ information.
2. Chinese engineers from ByteDance have been granted access to certain data from the United States
Mr. Chew mentioned a concept referred to as “Project Texas”, where all data would be stored within the US and monitored by the American corporation Oracle. Although it is not yet in full effect, the ByteDance engineering team does possess access to the data, as recently stated by Mr. Chew.
“We rely on global interoperability; Chinese engineers have access to data,” he told.
Politicians continually referred to a certain acknowledgment. They argued that since engineers in China have the means to access data, it is improbable that the Chinese government would not have the same capability. Recently, the Chinese foreign ministry iterated that they do not seek data or intelligence found in other nations.
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3. Chew holds an equity position in ByteDance.
When asked about ownership of shares in ByteDance, Mr. Chew had been reluctant to answer; however, upon being pushed by legislators, he conceded that he had invested in the Chinese corporation. Throughout the hearing, Mr. Chew had sought to set TikTok and ByteDance apart.
Ultimately, though, his efforts were unsuccessful; the Chinese government declared its opposition to the potential US proposal of forcing ByteDance to relinquish control of its subsidiary. As the former CFO of ByteDance, it is self-evident that the enterprise owns TikTok.
4. TikTok is not by Chew’s children
At one point during the hearing, Congresswoman Nanette Barragán asked Mr Chew whether or not his own children had used “TikTok”. In response, he indicated that his children had not used the app as it is not available for those under the age of 13 in Singapore, where they reside.
Credit: Google
Mr. Chew made it known that the child-oriented version of the app is accessible within the US and specified that he’d permit his children to make use of it if they were located in America. He goes on telling that more than 150 million Americans love Tiktok.
5. How does Cambridge Analytica factor in?
Although Mr. Chew generally refrained from retaliating in the face of criticism, there were moments where he decidedly pushed back in a quite convincing manner.
Credit: Google
- When asked about TikTok’s approach to data, he answered pointedly: “With due consideration, American businesses have not been notably successful in this area…Simply consider Facebook and Cambridge Analytica as an example.” This remark was of an unfriendly nature, yet it still had justification to it.
- In 2018, the data harvested by Cambridge Analytica and additional external apps from Facebook’s consumers became a source of disagreement.
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