{"id":622044,"date":"2023-03-23T23:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/tiktoks-ceo-faces-bipartisan-skepticism-in-first-congressional-hearing-on-security-concerns\/"},"modified":"2023-03-23T23:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T04:01:00","slug":"tiktoks-ceo-faces-bipartisan-skepticism-in-first-congressional-hearing-on-security-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/tiktoks-ceo-faces-bipartisan-skepticism-in-first-congressional-hearing-on-security-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok\u2019s CEO faces bipartisan skepticism in first Congressional hearing on security concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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March 24, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a05 min read<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 By Marty Swant<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tIvy Liu\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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As TikTok\u2019s chief executive made his first appearance in front of Congress, U.S. lawmakers made it clear that other Big Tech companies are also still very much in the hot seat.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew spent more than four hours answering questions from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee as members peppered him with questions about the social media app. Some focused on the company\u2019s connections to its China-based parent company ByteDance <\/strong>and the Chinese government, while others addressed issues of data privacy, advertising, content moderation and mental health.<\/p>\n

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The hearing comes as governments around the world seek to ban TikTok<\/a> from government devices to curb what officials say is a national security threat. Meanwhile, some lawmakers in the U.S. have proposed an outright ban on TikTok, which TikTok and various other groups have said would harm the growing number of individuals and businesses that rely on it. The Biden administration has even called on ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company \u2014 a demand China oppposes \u2014 but Chew said that wouldn\u2019t solve data privacy concerns that continue to plague many social networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to address the problem of privacy,\u201d Chew said. \u201cI don\u2019t think ownership is the issue here. With a lot of respect, American social companies don\u2019t have a good track record with data privacy and user security. I mean, look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Just one example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chew \u2014 who became TikTok\u2019s CEO in 2021 \u2014 also tried to reassure lawmakers that TikTok isn\u2019t as connected to the Chinese government as some suggest. For example, he touted TikTok\u2019s \u201cProject Texas,\u201d which includes a $1.5 billion plan to overhaul the app\u2019s data storage to put all U.S. user data under the protection of U.S. law. Other updates would include new third-party oversight of the app\u2019s infrastructure and other changes through a partnership with Oracle. He also said TikTok\u2019s content moderation and data-privacy practices were no different than other social networks, arguing that he hasn\u2019t \u201cheard any good reason why this doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were also plenty of questions that Chew avoided directly answering. For example, he promised to follow up when asked whether TikTok should be protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. (The controversial law was also the topic of two recent cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court related to Twitter and Google<\/a>.) Chew also promised to later provide more details about whether TikTok collects geolocation data, what percentage of revenue is held by TikTok\u2019s parent company and other questions about the app\u2019s ties with China. When pressed to provide specifics about who helped him prepare for the hearing, he said his phone was \u201cfull of well-wishes\u201d ahead of the high-profile testimony.<\/p>\n

Both Republicans and Democrats noted how TikTok concerns have transcended political parties more than two years after former U.S. President Donald Trump initially sought to ban the app. <\/strong>During Thursday\u2019s hearing, one lawmaker pointed out that Congress has already had dozens of hearings about \u201cprivacy and big tech.\u201d Several others said the U.S. needs to pass a national data privacy law, which passed through a committee last year<\/a> but failed to gain additional traction. During her five minutes of questioning, U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester said she \u201ccame here hoping to get answers.\u201d However, she said her concerns have grown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re upset with TikTok and yes, you keep mentioning that there are industry issues that not only TikTok faces,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie. \u201cYou remind me a lot of Mark Zuckerberg. When he came here, I said to my staff [that] he reminds me of Fred Astaire \u2014 a good dancer with words \u2014 and you are doing the same today.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked several times if TikTok sells its data, Chew seemed to dodge the question. In one instance, he said the app doesn\u2019t sell data to anyone. When responding to another question, he said \u201cI believe we don\u2019t sell data to data brokers.\u201d When asked if GPS data is used for serving ads, he offered to \u201ccheck on the details.\u201d Chew also said he\u2019d follow up with an answer about how much revenue comes from advertising directed at kids between the ages of 13 and 17, <\/strong>and added that TikTok doesn\u2019t serve ads to children younger than that.<\/p>\n

Reaction to Chew\u2019s testimony<\/h2>\n

Beyond the walls of Congress, civil and digital rights groups have been organizing against a potential TikTok ban. For example, the organization Fight For The Future created a \u201cDontBanTikTok\u201d campaign featuring various TikTok creators. And in a separate letter to Congress, more than a dozen groups including the American Civil Liberties Union argued that a TikTok ban would harm digital freedoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to use the internet and not have to hop from platform to platform because of the whims of Congress,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

TikTok\u2019s advertising practices aren\u2019t any more egregious than other social platforms, according to Bonnie Patten, CEO of the watchdog organization Truth In Advertising. However, she said her team has found instances of advertising on the platform that don\u2019t adhere to TikTok\u2019s own terms and conditions. For example, she mentioned finding a \u201cmultitude\u201d of non-disclosed advertising from influencers and various cases of multilevel marketing schemes despite TikTok\u2019s ban on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a marketing standpoint, the issues that TikTok raises are no different than the issues that are being raised on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat for that matter,\u201d Patten said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing the same deceptive marketing that negatively impacts kids. The big difference is who owns it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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