TikTok's CEO is scheduled to testify before a U.S. congressional committee next month.
CEO Shou Zi Chew voluntarily agreed to appear before the U.S. Energy
and Commerce Committee on March 23, when he's expected to answer
questions about TikTok's data, privacy, and security practices. The
announcement comes as the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to vote on a bill next month to ban TikTok in the U.S. over security concerns.
- It will be Chew's first appearance before a U.S. congressional panel.
- In a news release
today, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee's Republican chair,
accused ByteDance-owned TikTok of allowing the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) to access U.S. user data.
- "Americans deserve to know how
these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what
actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline
harms," she said.
- In response, a TikTok spokesperson said the CCP has "neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok."
- Meanwhile, TikTok has been working on a proposal with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to address concerns about data sharing and security.
- In
2020, that same committee ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok over
concerns about user data being accessible to China's government.
