TikTok CEO Zhou Ziqiu testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee March 23, 2023 on Capitol Hill. The hearing was a rare opportunity for lawmakers to question the head of the short-form video social media app about the company’s relationship with its Chinese counterparts. owner, ByteDance, and how they handle users’ sensitive personal data.
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TikTok CEO Zhou Ziqiu testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee March 23, 2023 on Capitol Hill. The hearing was a rare opportunity for lawmakers to question the head of the short-form video social media app about the company’s relationship with its Chinese counterparts. owner, ByteDance, and how they handle users’ sensitive personal data.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Lawmakers from both parties grilled TikTok CEO Zhou Zichu during a high-level hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday about the safety and security of the wildly popular app.
“To the American people watching today, listen to this. TikTok is a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on you and manipulate what you see and exploit for future generations,” said committee chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Wash.
Rogers asked Chu to say with “100% certainty” that neither Chinese authorities nor employees of TikTok parent company ByteDance could use the app to spy on Americans or promote content favorable to Chinese interests.
Chu said TikTok does not promote or remove content at the request of Chinese authorities. He said the app was “free from any manipulation by any government”.
Rogers replied. “If you can’t say it with 100% certainty, I’ll take it as a no.”
While U.S. officials have not offered any evidence that Chinese authorities have accessed Americans’ data on the app, national security experts say it’s a real possibility, even if it remains theoretical. Similarly, the Chinese government has never influenced the app’s recommendation algorithm, although experts also say it is hypothetically possible.
In his first appearance on Capitol Hill, Chu faced a series of hostile questions about TikTok, the world’s most downloaded app in 2022, and ByteDance. His appearance comes shortly after White House officials told TikTok it must divest from ByteDance or face severe punishment in the US, including the possibility of a ban.
Top White House officials and a growing chorus of bipartisan lawmakers continue to view TikTok as a threat, fearing China’s authoritarian regime could use TikTok data to spy on or blackmail the millions of Americans who use the app every day.
And while there is no evidence that the Chinese government tried to access TikTok data, the company has admitted that Chinese employees accessed the data of US users who were journalists who reported on the company’s leaks. .
Members of both parties asked about “espionage” and “surveillance”.
During the hearing, Chew was grilled about whether the app shared data with the Chinese government. Many lawmakers used words like “espionage” and “surveillance,” characterizations with which Chu disagreed.
Asked whether TikTok employees could spy on or target people in the US, Chu did not directly answer.
“We will protect US user data and protect it from all unwanted foreign access, that’s a commitment we made to the committee,” he said.
Chew highlighted the company’s focus on its $1.5 billion restructuring, known as Project Texas, which uses Austin software giant Oracle to host and control all of its American user data. The plan includes creating a new organization and hiring thousands of employees focused on data security.
Chew acknowledged Thursday that until the Texas project is completed, TikTok’s Beijing-based employees may be able to access US user data, but that under the restructuring, the digital firewall will prevent Chinese employees from accessing Americans’ personal data.
NPR’s Bobby Allin contributed to this report