TikTok CEO grilled on Capitol Hill as platform faces potential US ban

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is being grilled Thursday on Capitol Hill as lawmakers seek answers about the popular video-sharing apps’ national security risks and ties to China.

The hearing began with scathing remarks from House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (R-Wash.), who immediately expressed her support for a TikTok ban while blasting the platform’s links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values,” McMorris Rodgers said.

“TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned,” she added.

The chair also alleged that TikTok has “repeatedly been caught in the lie that it does not answer to the CCP through ByteDance,” the platform’s parent company.

In his opening remarks, Chen said he takes the US government’s concerns about national security “very, very seriously.” The TikTok CEO also defended the company’s effort to protect and store US user data on American soil through a partnership with Oracle.

Chew added that TikTok would prioritize protecting its teenage users from harmful content and would not allow its platform to be manipulated by China or other foreign governments.

“There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Chew said.

Earlier in the day, China indicated it would “firmly oppose” any effort by the Biden administration to force a sale of TikTok.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.