Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, testified before the US Congress for the first time and declared that the platform will never provide China access to customer information from the US. The Congress, though, seems more eager than ever to outlaw TikTok. Chew, who spoke late on Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, assured the audience that the business will improve privacy and prevent any potential of “unauthorised foreign access.” “to US customer information, according to TechCrunch.
“I understand that there are concerns stemming from the inaccurate belief that TikTok’s corporate structure makes it beholden to the Chinese government or that it shares information about US users with the Chinese government,” added Chew. He told the committee that, ““This is emphatically untrue.”
TikTok use harmful algorithms to exploit children
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew mentioned. Chew had already alerted the 150 million US users of TikTok about the prohibition in a video. “Some politicians have started talking about banning TikTok,” Chew said. “Now this could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.”
Americans should be informed of the extent to which their privacy is threatened and “their data is manipulated by ByteDance-owned TikTok’s relations with China,” according to Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who made this statement at the hearing .
“What’s worse, we know Big Tech companies, like TikTok, use harmful algorithms to exploit children for profit and expose them to dangerous content online,” Rodgers spoke to Chew. The committee questioned Chew on the steps TikTok is taking to safeguard children using the programme.
According to reports, the TikTok owner, China-based ByteDance, has been ordered by the Joe Biden administration to sell its holdings in the short-video app or risk being banned.
The Chinese app gathers user information just like the other apps
A new measure introduced by a group of 12 US senators has gained support from the White House and may give President Biden the authority to outlaw TikTok nationally.
Similar user information is gathered by TikTok and other social media companies like Facebook and Instagram. Names, ages, contact information, email addresses, and images are all included.
The National Intelligence Law of China, passed in 2017, has been cited by FBI Director Chris Wray as requiring businesses to “to do whatever the government wants them to do in terms of showing them information or serving as a tool for the Chinese government.”
The “For You” feed, another feature of TikTok that suggests videos for users to watch, is considered to be better constructed than Facebook or Youtube’s equivalents.