The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chewwarned US congressmen on Thursday that imposing a veto on that platform in the country would be detrimental to the economy and freedom of expression.
It is an app where people can be creative. There are close to five million American businesses, most of them small, that use it to find customers and drive growth.”
he said before the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives, where he recalled that in the United States there are around 150 million users.
Chew had met bilaterally with some lawmakers this year to emphasize that the company offers privacy and security guarantees, but this was his first official appearance on Capitol Hill.
The administrative leadership of Congress has already vetoed the download and use of TikTok of all government mobile devices and in January and March various bills were presented that seek to prohibit its application in all of 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 led by an executive team in USA and Singaporethat their headquarters are in The Angels and Singapore, and that it is not available in the Chinese mainland.
He said he was aware, however, that the fact that its parent company, ByteDance, has Chinese founders has raised suspicions about whether its platform could be used or become a tool of China or the Chinese Communist Party.
But “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It is a private company. I have no proof that the Chinese Executive has access to the data. They have never asked us,” he stated.
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 center of his 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 company based in that country, they have hired Oracle, a leader in cloud-based services, and just the staff of a new unit of the firm, TikTok. US 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 one, the only one, that offers this level of transparency.”
he said in a session surrounded by much media and legislative expectation.
A session in which the opposition of the congressmen was clear from the beginning.
We don’t trust TikTok to ever embrace American values. The platform should be banned. Many of his employees still report directly to Beijing. We don’t believe their arguments.”
said the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
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