The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (Kevin McCarthy) said on Sunday (March 26) that he would advance legislation to address national security concerns raised by TikTok and protect Americans from “Chinese technology tentacles.” TikTok currently has 150 million users in the United States.
In the United States, there are growing calls to ban TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and to pass bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden’s administration the legal authority to impose a ban. Systems and devices of U.S. government agencies have also recently been banned from installing the app.
It%27s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can%27t be honest and admit what we already know to be true—China has access to TikTok user data.The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 26, 2023
“The House will move forward with legislation to protect Americans from Chinese Communist Party technology,” McCarthy tweeted Sunday.
TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi (Shou Zi Chew) last Thursday (March 23) before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to testify for about five hours, and lawmakers from both parties questioned him on national security and issues involving the application. cross-examination.
The hearing was funded last week and was asked whether the app spied on Americans at the behest of Beijing? He replied: “No.”
Republican Representative Neal Dunn (Neal Dunn) then cited the fact that several Chinese employees of ByteDance improperly obtained the TikTok user data of two journalists in December last year, and asked Zhou whether ByteDance was engaged in espionage?
TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi went to Capitol Hill to attend a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, 2022, and was questioned by lawmakers on a series of issues including TikTok user privacy, data security, and US national security. (Photographed by Voice of America reporter Li Yihua)
Zhou responded, “I don’t think ‘espionage’ is the right word to describe it,” describing the reports as an “internal investigation.”
ByteDance confirmed in December last year that in order to determine whether the company’s internal information was leaked to reporters, four employees of the company, including branches in China and the United States, had accessed the personal data of reporters from the Financial Times and BuzzFeed to track reporters. Afterwards, all four employees were fired.
McCarthy tweeted, “It is very concerning that the CEO of TikTok cannot be honest about the fact that we already know that China has access to TikTok user data.”
Mike Gallagher (Mike Gallagher), chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said on a US television program on Sunday that Zhou Shouzi’s appearance in Congress did not appease lawmakers’ concerns, but instead “increased the number of actions Congress took.” possibility of action”.
Gallagher said that TikTok has actually united Republicans and Democrats because of their concerns about the CCP’s control of the most dominant media platform in the United States.
Former U.S. President Trump tried to ban TikTok and another Chinese-owned app WeChat (a Tencent subsidiary) in 2020, but was rejected by the court. Many Democrats have also raised concerns, but have yet to explicitly support a U.S. ban.
TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts called Project Texas, which now has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and has a contract with Oracle Corp. Keep U.S. user data in the U.S. to avoid Chinese surveillance and influence. Many lawmakers remain skeptical.
(This article is based on a Reuters report.)