Just a few days ago, the short video app TikTok broke the 150 million user mark in the United States, according to its CEO Shou Zi Chew. On Thursday, the 40-year-old manager had to defend the video portal, which is particularly popular with young people, in the US Congress. Not only in the USA there are massive data protection concerns and the suspicion that the Chinese government could abuse TikTok – a subsidiary of the Chinese Internet giant Bytedance – for espionage purposes.
At his hearing before the Energy and Trade Committee of the US House of Representatives, Shou Zi Chew tried to refute the suspicion and avert a complete ban on the app in the US. “We do not promote or remove content at the request of the Chinese government,” Chew said. “We are committed to this committee and to all of our users that we will keep TikTok free from any government manipulation.”
“You will continue
Collect data”
The committee’s leading Democratic MP, Frank Pallone, criticized the company’s lack of distance from the Beijing government. “You will continue to collect data, you will continue to sell data, and you will continue to be under the aegis of the Communist Party.” Numerous states have already banned TikTok from company cell phones because of a possible transfer of user data. TikTok, which already has more than a billion users worldwide, is also banned on the devices of US government employees and in the White House. A few days ago, another country, the Netherlands, banned the use of TikTok on company cell phones.
Chew had previously pointed to billions in investments to protect the data of 150 million US users. These would be stored in the country and protected from external access. Republican committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers had expressed skepticism before the meeting: “It is clear that TikTok will say everything to ensure that it is not banned in the United States.”
freedom of speech against
National security
In Congress, 20 lawmakers and senators are backing a bipartisan initiative that would give the government the power to ban foreign technology if it threatens national security. This could clear a high hurdle for the TikTok ban that former US President Donald Trump failed to overcome in 2020. Courts had overturned the ban imposed by decree because it curtailed the right to freedom of expression. According to experts, however, lawsuits must also be expected with a new law.
“Restricting access to a platform used by millions of Americans every day would set a dangerous precedent for regulating our digital public in general,” warned Jameel Jaffer, director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, which is dedicated to the committed to protecting freedom of expression. There are also critics of the ban among Democratic members of Congress. Some of them joined a demonstration by TikTok influencers on Wednesday. According to experts, a ban on the app would harm the Democratic Party because it reaches young voters.