Mr. TikTok goes to Washington
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
TikTok is on Capitol Hill today. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the popular social media app, testified in front of Congress about the company’s data security practices and its relationship with the Chinese government, as more lawmakers advocate for banning the app in the United States.
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Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, testified in front of the House Energy Committee for five hours on Thursday. He was grilled by lawmakers on issues ranging from data privacy to national security.
For years, lawmakers have threatened to ban the social media app in the United States, and legislation is inching forward that might make it a reality. But there are sharp generational and political divisions on the subject, with TikTok users more likely to oppose a ban. Recent polling shows that more Americans back a TikTok ban than oppose one. And TikTok says there are 150 million active monthly users in the United States.
Business and tech policy reporter Cristiano Lima, who also writes the Technology 202 newsletter, joins us from the Hill to discuss the hearing and what this might mean for TikTok in the United States.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The committee will come to order. |
| 0:06.0 | Mr. Chu, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok |
| 0:12.3 | poses to our national and personal security. |
| 0:16.0 | Today, all eyes on Capitol Hill were on one man. |
| 0:19.8 | Show Z-Chu, the CEO of TikTok. |
| 0:26.0 | We are committed to be very transparent with our users about what we collect. |
| 0:30.0 | I don't think what we collect. |
| 0:31.0 | I don't believe what we collect is more than more than a million. |
| 0:34.0 | CEOs of social media companies are no strangers to giving congressional testimony. |
| 0:39.8 | But Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, they're all still around. |
| 0:44.4 | The government never banned them, but that's a very real possibility with TikTok. |
| 0:50.0 | And while some people are more than happy at the idea of TikTok just disappearing in the |
| 0:55.0 | US, others are fighting to keep it alive. |
| 1:01.2 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:05.4 | I'm Chris Velasco, your guest host. |
| 1:08.4 | It's Thursday, March 23rd. |
| 1:11.3 | TikTok says it's grown to 150 million monthly active users in the US, and now it faces |
| 1:18.5 | an existential crisis. |
| 1:24.8 | Today, we're talking with Cristiano Lima about this. |
| 1:28.2 | Cristiano is a business reporter at the Post, and he writes the tech 202 newsletter, which |
| 1:32.8 | covers tech policy and politics. |
| 1:35.9 | He was on Capitol Hill today, reporting from inside one of the most important tech hearings |
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