Congress has convened an investigation into the social media platform TikTok amidst allegations of spying on American citizens. The TikTok CEO Shou Chew answered questions before Congress today regarding whether or not spying was occurring on journalists and many more in order to supply information back to their parent company ByteDance based in China.
According to reports from Forbes, ByteDance used TikTok as a means to spy on American journalists, accessing their IP addresses and trying to see if they had any communication with ByteDance employees. The House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers questioned the CEO of TikTok about the damning report from Forbes.
“TikTok spied on American journalists. Can you say with 100% certainty that neither ByteDance, nor TikTok employees, can target other Americans with similar surveillance techniques?” Rodgers bluntly asked the CEO.
“I disagree with the characterization that it’s ‘spying,’” Chew replied.
Many representatives from both sides of the aisle have raised major national security concerns regarding TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and just how much information they’re able to collect on Americans. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration has even called for the parent company to sell TikTok or face a possible ban nationwide.
Rodgers was obviously unhappy with Chew’s answer and decided to reframe her question in a simple yes or no format.
“Can you do surveillance of other Americans?
Chew responded with only the promise that TikTok will not allow user data to be compromised by foreign actors, but the Congresswoman did not seem reassured.
“I wanted to hear you say with 100% certainty that neither ByteDance nor TikTok employees can target other Americans with similar surveillance techniques as you did with the journalists,” she said.
Chew again dodged her question with a very uneasy response, “Again, I disagree with the characterization of ‘surveillance.”