The less-than-impressive performance of TikTok CEO Shou Chew at a hearing before the US House of Representatives has contributed to speeding up the progress of the bill to ban the platform.
According to Reuters, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said lawmakers will continue the bill to address concerns related to the TikTok platform and national security issues. The House leader accused the video-sharing app of collecting data from US users and sending it back to China.
“House of Representatives will move forward with legislation to protect Americans from Chinese technology tricks,” he wrote on his personal Twitter
The House leader also acknowledged that former President Donald Trump’s administration was right to be concerned about TikTok. In 2020, Mr. Trump failed to find a way to ban TikTok and WeChat – a messaging app controlled by Tencent (based in China).
TikTok is being viewed as “a problem” in the US, and many organizations and users here want the bill to pass so that the Joe Biden administration has the legal authority to ban the platform. Previously, Washington banned the installation of TikTok on government-owned devices.
TikTok had the opportunity to change America’s attitude, but in the recent hearing of CEO Shou Chew before the House of Representatives, the situation became even worse. For nearly 5 hours, US congressmen continuously questioned TikTok’s leadership about national security and other issues of this application in the US. Mr. Chew denied allegations that TikTok shared data at Beijing’s request, but was unable to give a definitive, clear answer to address the concerns of US lawmakers.
“It’s worrisome that the CEO of TikTok can’t be honest, admitting what we already know to be true. China has access to TikTok user data,” said Republican Congressman McCarthy.
Speaking to ABC News, Chairman of the US House of Representatives China Committee Mike Gallagher said: “Rather than allay the concerns of lawmakers, Mr. Chew’s presence before Congress increases the likelihood ban TikTok app”.
Many other congressmen also shared the same opinion when saying that CEO Shou Chew’s reply showed that US officials’ concerns were well-founded. According to Congressman Michael McCaul, Mr. Chew’s performance demonstrated that TikTok must be banned or sold. “Mr. Chew’s reply does not address any of the questions from the US House of Representatives,” he said
“We came here hoping to hear concrete things from TikTok to ease our concerns, but so far have not been able to rest assured of anything he has to say. His words have raised more questions than mine. reply,” congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester said it and admitted she was not happy with what had taken place.