TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chou is set to appear on Capitol Hill Thursday amid growing concerns that the social media giant is a threat to national security. Ahead of the congressional meeting, Chou has already prepared a written piece that aims to disprove the misconceptions about TikTok.
The piece focuses particularly on the idea that the video-sharing app is being used to deliver private user data of its American users straight to the Chinese government.
'ByteDance is Not an Agent of China,' Chou Reiterates
Chou currently serves as the chief executive of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company whose headquarters is located in Beijing. The fact that the social media app is owned by a Chinese corporation does not bode well for TikTok and the thousands of employees behind it, as U.S. legislators dwell on the possibility that ByteDance is working with the Communist Party of China by giving them TikTok users' private information.
In Chou's prepared speech for Congress, the TikTok executive pointed out that "ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country." Prior to the expected first appearance of Chou in Congress this week, allegations that TikTok is being used by China to spy on the U.S. government have been going on for years.
It was only during the Biden administration that these allegations appeared to become sufficient to result in a total ban on TikTok in the United States. As reported by Engadget, members of both the Democratic and Republican parties of Congress have supported bills that will give President Joe Biden and other White House executives the power to order the ban.
"TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made," Chou said in the written statement. It is known that social media apps store their users' private details, which include their complete names, contact numbers, e-mail addresses, and more. In the case of TikTok, U.S. officials emphasized that according to Chinese laws, Beijing-based companies like ByteDance are required to make this information accessible to the CCP.
U.S. officials believe that the only way to prevent the TikTok ban in the country is for ByteDance to divest from the social media app and sell its stocks to an American company. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chou said that divesting is not a solution to protect the users' data. To make sure that the private data is in safe hands, he proposed to hire a private tech firm based in the U.S. for storing the data.
Related Article: TikTok Ban Update: CEO Makes an Appeal to App Users In Short Video
TikTok Taking Steps to Protect U.S. User Data
Chou also mentioned in his prepared statement that TikTok has taken measures on its own to protect the private information of app users. He claimed that the company has already started "deleting historically protected U.S. user data stored in non-Oracle servers" since early March. "Under this structure, there is no way for the Chinese government to access it or compel access to it," Chou further stated.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will convene the hearing where Chou is set to testify. In the previous hearing, legislators grilled TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas, who insisted that the social media app is not Chinese-owned. It is expected that the legislators' line of questioning for Chou will focus on TikTok's possible ties with the Chinese government and the app's credibility for storing the private information of the American people.
