TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced heavy criticism from US lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on Thursday, amid new concerns about ikTok's ties to China and the safety of US citizens' data. faced.
A House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing said the Biden administration could completely ban the app in the U.S. if Chinese owner ByteDance refuses to sell its stake in TikTok to a U.S. company. It was done after suggesting.
TikTok, which has 150 million users in the United States alone, has emerged as one of the most controversial elements in the country's growing conflict with China. The Biden administration, along with members of the House and Senate, has said it is concerned about the impact of having Americans' data accessed by the Chinese state and that it could pose a national security risk. China's national security law requires companies to hand over customer data upon request from the Chinese government.
clock: TikTok CEO testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee
The controversy over TikTok is driving yet another wedge between the United States and China. The Chinese government said Thursday it opposes any efforts by the U.S. government to force the sale of the app, suggesting such a step could lead to Chinese investors disinvesting from the U.S. economy.
Even before the Trump administration first threatened to ban TikTok in 2020, the company had denied accusations that it had close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that it was putting American citizens' data at risk. Since then, the company said it has invested $1.5 billion in projects that ensure sensitive user data is stored on U.S. soil, inaccessible from China and subject to U.S. government audits. “TikTok has never shared or received a request to share any U.S. user data with the Chinese government,” Shaw said in written testimony ahead of Thursday's hearing. “And if such a request is made, TikTok will not honor it.”
His efforts did little to allay Washington's concerns. Thursday's Congressional hearing echoed previous grilling at Tech CEO Hill, with lawmakers often using props — large print and TikTok videos displayed on big screens — to make their points. , but the consensus of condemnation came from both sides of Congress. The political aisle was remarkable. “We do not believe that TikTok will continue to embrace American values,” said Kathy Rogers, Republican chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path to more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.”
Here's what you need to know about the controversy surrounding TikTok.
What is TikTok being accused of?
Reportedly, the Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies believe that this data could help China conduct influence operations targeting U.S. citizens. I'm worried about it falling into my hands. TikTok has the proven ability to directly amplify content to millions of users, including many children and teens, making it difficult for the Chinese state to use TikTok to secretly influence the American public. U.S. officials appear concerned that they may be forced to do so.
read more: Why the US and other countries want to ban or restrict TikTok
In 2019, The Guardian reported that TikTok had instructed its moderators to censor videos that mentioned topics deemed controversial by the Chinese Communist Party, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and Tibetan independence. TikTok said those guidelines are no longer in use, and videos of Chinese anti-government protests circulated widely on the app in late 2022.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, “Our intelligence agencies are concerned about China's efforts and intent to use data to shape the use of this technology in a worldview that is completely inconsistent with our own.'' “We're very clear about that,” he said. wall street journal last month.
National Security Agency Secretary Paul Nakasone said earlier this month that he was “concerned” about TikTok's ability to influence the cultural conversation in the United States. “When you have this many listeners, the fact is that not only can you influence something, but you can also turn off your message,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
These concerns have been stoked not only by politicians and the national security community, but also by TikTok's competitor Meta, which has sought to portray the platform as a danger to American children that deserves a ban. washington post report. Meta first launched Instagram Reels, a TikTok clone, in 2020, when it appeared the Trump administration was on the verge of banning the app.
Will security concerns about TikTok persist?
Since it is a prediction about the future, it is impossible to say with certainty. But just as there is little evidence (at least publicly) that TikTok is involved in controlling speech on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, there is also no evidence that TikTok has covert ties to the Chinese state. do not have. “I have been trying to find a connection to the Chinese state for years,” journalist Chris Stokel Walker, who is writing a book about the rise of TikTok, wrote on BuzzFeed News this week. “I've talked to dozens of TikTok employees, past and present, in search of such a connection. But I haven't found one. I can't say the link doesn't exist. …But no one has found conclusive evidence.”
Still, TikTok has a long list of very real privacy scandals under its belt. In December 2022, the company admitted that its employees were using location data to monitor reporters in an effort to trace the source of leaked information. According to TikTok's parent company ByteDance, those employees have been terminated. TikTok also plans to monitor the location of certain U.S. citizens using location data from their devices, Forbes reported last October.
read more: TikTok has started collecting your “faceprint” and “voiceprint.”Here's what they can do
TikTok is also engaging in what some observers call intrusive tracking measures against regular users. These tactics include encouraging users to let TikTok collect their phone contact lists as a way to connect users they already know on the app. Even if you refuse to allow TikTok to access your contacts, you will still be prompted to follow anyone who has your number in their phone contact list.
But these growth hacking tactics aren't all that bad compared to what other homegrown social media companies like Meta are doing. And the systemic issue behind these more egregious privacy violations isn't TikTok's relationship with China. It's the fact that the United States lacks comprehensive privacy laws, allowing social media apps to operate like the Wild West when it comes to collecting and monetizing user data. “If you think the U.S. needs a ban on TikTok instead of a comprehensive privacy law regulating data brokers, then you don't care about privacy, and Chinese companies have built a dominant social media platform. I just hate it,” said director Eva Galperin. Electronic Frontier Foundation Cybersecurity; I have written On Twitter.
“Congress is fiercely opposed to TikTok, but has failed to pass even the most basic comprehensive privacy laws to protect our data from abuse by all the tech companies that collect and mine it.” said technology founder Julia Angwin. As the news site The Markup wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times: “A closer look at the national security allegations against TikTok shows that most of the charges could just as easily be brought against America's big tech companies.”
