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WASHINGTON: TikTok‘s chief government will face powerful questions on Thursday from lawmakers who’re satisfied the Chinese language-owned brief video app ought to be barred for being a possible nationwide safety menace to the US.
CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony earlier than Congress may also cap every week of actions by the Chinese language firm geared toward convincing Individuals and their lawmakers that the app creates financial worth and helps free speech.
TikTok, which has greater than 150 million Individuals customers, has confronted sharp accusations that its US person information can be shared with the Chinese language authorities and that it fails to adequately shield kids from hurt.
TikTok has stated it has spent greater than $1.5 billion on what it calls rigorous information safety efforts underneath the title “Venture Texas” that at the moment has almost 1,500 full-time workers and is contracted with Oracle to retailer TikTok’s US person information. It additionally says it rigorously screens content material that would hurt kids.
The Home of Representatives Power and Commerce Committee listening to can be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who says she is unconvinced by TikTok’s safety commitments.
“We’re going to expose the reality about a number of the lies that TikTok and CEO Chew has been stating. We’ll expose the truth that TikTok can’t be trusted. They can’t be trusted with our information. They can’t be trusted to guard our kids’s psychological well being,” she informed reporters forward of the listening to.
Chew informed reporters forward of the listening to that “there are lots of misconceptions about our firm, and I am very proud to return right here and symbolize them and regular customers right here on this nation.”
Some political consultants say a TikTok ban could possibly be damaging to Democrats who’ve used the platform to achieve youthful voters. Three Home Democrats rallied with TikTok creators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in opposition to a ban.
“Why the hysteria and the panic and the focusing on of TikTok?” requested Consultant Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, at a information convention on Wednesday. “Let’s do the suitable factor right here – complete social media reform because it pertains to privateness and safety.”
Nonetheless, way more US lawmakers need TikTok banned. TikTok final week stated President Joe Biden’s administration demanded its Chinese language house owners divest their stakes or face a possible ban.
China’s ministry of commerce at a briefing on Thursday stated that “forcing the sale of TikTok will severely injury the boldness of traders from everywhere in the world, together with China, to put money into the US. If the information is true, China will firmly oppose it.”
“Proscribing entry to a speech platform that’s utilized by hundreds of thousands of Individuals on daily basis would set a harmful precedent for regulating our digital public sphere extra broadly,” stated Jameel Jaffer, Knight First Modification Institute government director at Columbia College.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner on Wednesday stated two extra senators backed his bipartisan laws with Republican John Thune to provide the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok – elevating the whole to 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.
CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony earlier than Congress may also cap every week of actions by the Chinese language firm geared toward convincing Individuals and their lawmakers that the app creates financial worth and helps free speech.
TikTok, which has greater than 150 million Individuals customers, has confronted sharp accusations that its US person information can be shared with the Chinese language authorities and that it fails to adequately shield kids from hurt.
TikTok has stated it has spent greater than $1.5 billion on what it calls rigorous information safety efforts underneath the title “Venture Texas” that at the moment has almost 1,500 full-time workers and is contracted with Oracle to retailer TikTok’s US person information. It additionally says it rigorously screens content material that would hurt kids.
The Home of Representatives Power and Commerce Committee listening to can be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who says she is unconvinced by TikTok’s safety commitments.
“We’re going to expose the reality about a number of the lies that TikTok and CEO Chew has been stating. We’ll expose the truth that TikTok can’t be trusted. They can’t be trusted with our information. They can’t be trusted to guard our kids’s psychological well being,” she informed reporters forward of the listening to.
Chew informed reporters forward of the listening to that “there are lots of misconceptions about our firm, and I am very proud to return right here and symbolize them and regular customers right here on this nation.”
Some political consultants say a TikTok ban could possibly be damaging to Democrats who’ve used the platform to achieve youthful voters. Three Home Democrats rallied with TikTok creators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in opposition to a ban.
“Why the hysteria and the panic and the focusing on of TikTok?” requested Consultant Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, at a information convention on Wednesday. “Let’s do the suitable factor right here – complete social media reform because it pertains to privateness and safety.”
Nonetheless, way more US lawmakers need TikTok banned. TikTok final week stated President Joe Biden’s administration demanded its Chinese language house owners divest their stakes or face a possible ban.
China’s ministry of commerce at a briefing on Thursday stated that “forcing the sale of TikTok will severely injury the boldness of traders from everywhere in the world, together with China, to put money into the US. If the information is true, China will firmly oppose it.”
“Proscribing entry to a speech platform that’s utilized by hundreds of thousands of Individuals on daily basis would set a harmful precedent for regulating our digital public sphere extra broadly,” stated Jameel Jaffer, Knight First Modification Institute government director at Columbia College.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner on Wednesday stated two extra senators backed his bipartisan laws with Republican John Thune to provide the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok – elevating the whole to 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans.
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