Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned app
The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship to China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.
The Thursday morning hearing got off to an intense start, with members of the committee hammering on Chew’s connection to executives at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, whom they say have ties to the Chinese Communist party. Lawmakers asked how regularly Chew was in contact with them, and questioned whether the company’s proposed solution, called Project Texas, would be a sufficient protection against Chinese laws that require companies to make user data accessible to the government.
Continue reading…Shou Zi Chew attempts to play down concerns over data and privacy as lawmakers call for ban on Chinese-owned appThe chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was forced to defend his company’s relationship to China, as well as the protections for its youngest users, at a testy congressional hearing on Thursday that came amid a bipartisan push to ban the app entirely in the US over national security concerns.The Thursday morning hearing got off to an intense start, with members of the committee hammering on Chew’s connection to executives at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, whom they say have ties to the Chinese Communist party. Lawmakers asked how regularly Chew was in contact with them, and questioned whether the company’s proposed solution, called Project Texas, would be a sufficient protection against Chinese laws that require companies to make user data accessible to the government. Continue reading…