TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will appear before US lawmakers to testify on the popular short-video platform’s consumer privacy and data security practices.
Chew will appear at a hearing on March 23, 2023, according to a statement published Monday on the US Energy and Commerce Committee’s website.
The development comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny around TikTok in the US, where lawmakers and some politicians have raised concerns regarding the potential transfer of personal data of US citizens to the Chinese government by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
Chew’s forthcoming testimony has been confirmed by TikTok.
“Big Tech has increasingly become a destructive force in American society,” reads the statement. “The Energy and Commerce Committee has been at the forefront of asking Big Tech CEOs – from Facebook to Twitter to Google – to answer for their companies’ actions. These efforts will continue with TikTok.”
The Committee adds that ByteDance has “knowingly” allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to access American user data.
“We welcome the opportunity to set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,” said a TikTok spokesperson. The company states that “by sharing details of [their] comprehensive plans with the full committee, Congress can take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand.”
Despite persistent concerns, TikTok has maintained that the CCP has no direct or indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok’s datasets. Yet these repeated assurances from the tech giant have done little to allay the lawmakers’ misgivings.
The congressional hearing, which will be Chew’s first, will also attempt to explore TikTok’s impact on young audiences and how it protects them against harmful content both online and offline.
TikTok has more than 100 million users in the US, according to reports.
