Raising national security concerns, Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., listed several Western countries as well as the FBI that have warned about the Chinese government accessing and exploiting user data.
“How can all these countries and our own FBI director be wrong?” asked Lesko.
“I think a lot of the risks that are pointed out are hypothetical and theoretical risks,” Chew replied. “I don’t see any evidence.”
“I look forward to the discussions where we talk about the evidence,” he added. “And we can address the concerns that have been raised.”
TikTok does not share US user data with the Chinese government, nor will it comply when asked to do so, Chew previously said.
Rep. Earl Carter, R-Ga., asked Chew about dangerous TikTok challenge videos like the “blackout challenge,” which critics say encourage users to strangle themselves.
TikTok has faced several lawsuits from parents who say their children died while trying the blackout challenge. The company blocked searches for the #blackoutchallenge, The Washington Post reported.
“Why does TikTok consistently fail to identify and moderate these types of harmful videos?” Carter asked. “Why can’t you control it?”
Chew replied, “This is a real challenge in the industry and we are working hard.”
“We don’t talk about industry,” Carter replied. “We’re talking about TikTok.”
Rep. showed. Kat Cammack posted a TikTok video of an animated gun shooting bullets that appeared to target Rep. McMorris Rodgers, the chairman of the committee.
“Your own community guidelines say you have a strong stance against enabling violence on or off TikTok,” Cammack said when he revealed the video. “This video has been completed for 41 days.”
The video was taken during the hearing, Chew confirmed when the hearing resumed after a short break.
Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., directed heated questions at Chew about an internal TikTok memo that called on employees to “downgrade parent company ByteDance, downgrade China association, downgrade AI.”
Cammack displayed an excerpt of the memo, first reported by Gizmodo, on a placard behind him.
“You’re saying over and over that there’s no threat, that this is a platform for entertainment and for entertainment,” Cammack said, pointing his finger at Chew. “Why, if you have nothing to hide, do you have to downplay the partnership between ByteDance and China?”
Shou replied: “Congresswoman, I have not seen that memo.”
“You can’t answer that question, Mr. Shou,” Cammack said.
