Toni Dimaano Tech 01.31.2023 03:Jan AM EST

Congressional House Calls TikTok CEO To Testify In A March Hearing

TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, will come before a legislative committee for the first time and seek to ease lawmakers' concerns on March 23 in a hearing where he is a sole witness.

He is anticipated to provide testimony regarding TikTok's data security and privacy policies, the app's effects on teenage users, and its ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

This Follows The Company's Negotiation With The US Government

The public hearing highlights TikTok's increasing political danger as talks with the US government on a national security accord drag on, CNN Business reports.

Legislators will probably question Chew about TikTok and ByteDance's connection to China and the Chinese government once she appears before the commerce committee.

"TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data," Congressional Rep. and committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers argues.

She adds that Americans want to know how these acts affect their privacy and data security, as well as what steps TikTok is taking to protect our children from risks both online and offline.

According to a report by Gizmodo, ByteDance was established in China, has offices all around the world, including Beijing, and is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

In addition to national security fears that the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok to monitor citizens, US politicians have been raising concerns about Beijing-based employees' access to US users' data.

Moreover, many Republican lawmakers in particular have taken vehement, frequently unjustified positions against the plan.

TikTok Has Been Under Scrutiny In The US For A Long Time

It can be remembered that Vanessa Pappas, the chief operating officer of TikTok, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in September 2022 along with representatives from Meta, YouTube, and Twitter.

During the session, Pappas was grilled on a variety of topics, including who owned TikTok and ByteDance, where their offices were located, and how their data was handled.

After President Biden signed the move as a part of a massive budget bill in December 2022, the app is already prohibited from being used on federal devices.

The US House of Representatives then adopted a similar prohibition on TikTok on government devices, Gizmodo notes.

Additionally, TikTok has been banned from networks and devices in at least 28 states, as well as on numerous college campuses.

Undoubtedly, TikTok is gathering a ton of user data, much of which is likely reaching Beijing-based workers.

However, when it comes to social media sites, that is more often the norm than the exception as US-based companies have also collected a large amount of user information.

Furthermore, even with American businesses, part of this information winds up on Chinese computers, making the emphasis on TikTok alone somewhat nonsensical.

TikTok and ByteDance are currently negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CIFUS) to try to come to an arrangement that relieves the plethora of data privacy and national security concerns.

However, despite conversations lasting for more than two years, no agreement has yet been achieved between TikTok, ByteDance, and the US government.