TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew Gears up to Testify Before Congress

Amid rising strain from the US authorities, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is about to seem in a Congressional listening to for the primary time. The listening to shall be hosted by the White House Energy and Commerce Committee on twenty third March, Thursday at 10 AM ET.

TikTok presently faces the specter of getting banned within the US if ByteDance refuses to promote the platform’s stake.

Concerns about TikTok sharing overseas consumer information with the Chinese authorities aren’t new. However, the Biden administration has upped the strain in opposition to the video-sharing platform in current occasions.

Prior to the listening to, Chew has already issued his opening statements assuring that the corporate will proceed working in direction of stopping any “unauthorized foreign access” to American consumer information. TikTok will strengthen its privateness and safety practices and safeguard the security of minors, he added.

Last yr, leaked audio clips from TikTok’s inner conferences revealed that the corporate’s workers in China can doubtlessly entry information from US customers. However, Chew emphasised that TikTok has by no means shared American consumer information with the Chinese authorities and by no means will.

Chew went on to assert that the corporate would refuse to comply if the Chinese authorities requested entry to US consumer information.

Chew Likely to Face Harsh Questions and Criticism Over TikTok

Considering the Biden authorities’s robust stance in opposition to TikTok and the widespread issues relating to consumer information privateness, the Congress received’t be going simple on TikTok. Chew is probably going to subject harsh questions from each Republican and Democrat lawmakers. The general sentiment of the Congress relating to TikTok is obvious from the title of the listening to – “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms”.

TikTok’s future within the US largely hinges on how Chew fares on the listening to. Besides having to testify over the issues relating to Chinese affect on the platform, the CEO can be receiving criticism spanning a wide range of points.

Security issues will undoubtedly stay a prime precedence, however the influence of TikTok’s Chinese possession on the psychological well being of the youth shall be introduced up too.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s management has already revealed its intention to grill TikTok over the latter’s measures to defend minors on the platform. Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers accused Big Tech firms like TikTok of utilizing dangerous algorithms to exploit youngsters for revenue. Minors are consequently uncovered to dangerous content material on-line, he added.

“ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” assured Chew

As of now, there’s no stable proof of China gathering US consumer information by means of TikTok or intentionally utilizing algorithms to form the political conduct of the customers. However, an inner investigation performed by ByteDance final yr revealed that workers on the Beijing headquarters had gathered information on a small variety of American customers.

Following the report, a number of Federal businesses launched probes in opposition to the corporate to additional examine potential privateness and safety issues. The way forward for TikTok within the US stays to be seen, however these are undoubtedly attempting occasions for the corporate.