social network veto could hurt U.S. economy
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday warned U.S. congressmen that imposing a veto on the platform in the country would be detrimental to the economy and freedom of expression.
“It’s an app where people can be creative. There are about five million U.S. businesses, mostly small, that use it for find customers and drive their growth.“, he said before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he recalled that in the U.S. hovering around the 150 million users.
Chew had met bilaterally with some legislators this year to emphasize that the company offers privacy and security guarantees.but this was his first official appearance on Capitol Hill.
TikTok veto
The administrative leadership of Congress has already vetoed the downloading and use of TikTok from all government mobile devices, and in January and March, several bills were introduced seeking to ban its application in all those in the country and limit the threat posed by technology from “enemies” such as China or Iran.
Chew recalled that he is a Singaporean and a resident of Singapore, that TikTok is run by a executive team in the United States and SingaporeThe company is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and is not available in mainland China.
He said he was aware, however, that the fact that its parent company, ByteDance, has Chinese founders has raised suspicions as to whether its platform could be used Or become a tool of China or the Chinese Communist Party.
But “ByteDance is not under the property or control of the Chinese government. It is a private company. I have no evidence that the Chinese Executive has access to the data. They have never asked us for it,” he said.
Transparency
In his attempt to dispel doubts he also wanted to make it clear that his company is. subject to the laws of the United States. At the core of its work in this country in favor of security and privacy is the so-called Texas Project, which contemplates these safeguards.
To ensure that Americans’ data is stored in the United States and hosted by a U.S.-based company they have contracted with Oracle, a leader in cloud-based services, and only personnel in a new unit of the firm, TikTok U.S. Data Security, can access that data, he explained.
“This goes further, by the way, than any other company in our industry has done. We are the only, lthe only one, that offers this level of transparency.”He said in a session surrounded by much media and legislative expectation.
A session in which congressional opposition was clear from the outset. “We don’t trust TikTok to ever embrace American values. The platform should be vetoed. Many of its employees still answer directly to Beijing. We don’t buy their arguments,” noted Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Republican.
“We don’t buy their arguments.”
“We don’t trust TikTok to ever embrace American values. It should be vetoed. Many of its employees still answer directly to Beijing. We don’t buy their arguments.” noted Energy and Commerce committee chairwoman, Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
The director pointed out in his defense that there is a lot of prejudice in the reviews and stressed that. neither sell data to intermediaries, nor do they trace GPS tracking of its users. “We do not collect body, face or voice data to identify our users. We don’t believe we are collecting more information than any other company. Much of what is said is speculation. A could this or that,” he added.
In his pledge to lawmakers, there are four points: prioritizing the security of younger users, protect data from unauthorized foreign access, maintain itself as a platform for free expression and be transparent.
