TikTok CEO Shou Chew Enters the Lion’s Den – Why the Chances of Coming Out Alive Are Low

TikTok has recently encountered numerous headwinds as lawmakers in different countries ask questions about the threat the app meant for sharing short videos – often silly ones, poses, not only to national security but also to the mental health of children.

Once again, the app (TikTok), owned by a Chinese company is in the spotlight as the chief executive officer, Shou Chew, gears up for testimony to Congress. It is believed Chew is ready to tackle questions ranging from risk to national security, and addiction to kids’ mental health among others.

TikTok boasts over 150 million users in the United States alone, which suggests tremendous influence on the general public, especially using the app’s content-recommendation engine. Such influence is perceived as a societal threat.
Lawmakers have in Q1 2023 been very vocal, sensitizing citizens regarding the risks posed by TikTok.

Now, D-Day is here; Thursday 23, when Shou the CEO appears before the US House Energy and Commerce Committee for an in-person hearing—and the lawmakers are expected to grill him about all the fears they have with his app.

Which Challenging Questions Is Chew Anticipating?

The lawmakers are expected to start by addressing the elephant in the room – whether TikTok could be tapped by Chinese agencies to spy on Americans or spread the Chinese Communist Party propaganda. Legislators and various government agencies have at every turn and beckon called out the app on these two crucial allegations.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Chew is well prepared and confident to address these claims, as long as he sticks to the facts about TikTik’s robust security measures.

However, Chew will not be off the hook that easily with the hearing likely to become emotional. Reports have indicated that Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, and the committee chair is preparing to confront the CEO with stories of children who have died by suicide, get online access to a fentanyl pill, or tried a dangerous act after seeing stunts on the popular video sharing app. This is according to senior committee aides.

Chew will be probed on the above stories to explain TikTok’s role in the many unfortunate incidences – some of which have ended in dire tragedies.

In recent months, TikTok has attempted to control the narrative about the app being addictive to the younger generation, especially children, insisting that it has put in place measures to control exposure with the launch of a time limit feature and other accessible parental controls.

Based on the CEO’s remarks, prepared in advance, he intends to convince the committee that TikTok “will never stop looking for ways to improve” measures taken to protect teenagers.

He also hopes to spin things around on the committee and request recommendations on issues the app needs to rectify and improve to win back their trust, a person familiar with the company told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, it is important to realize early in this article that TikTok is not the only app at loggerheads with government agencies and lawmakers over its impact on mental health. The committee chair, McMorris Rodgers has on various occasions challenged other leading social media executives with similar concerns.

In a hearing in 2021, McMorris Rodgers told Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey that their social media platforms were her “biggest fear as a parent.”

Does Chew Have A ‘Magic Wand’ To Win Over the Legislators?

Hardly unlikely. The company has capitalized on creating awareness over a $1.5 billion investment it has made to improve data security called Project Texas. The main purpose of this project is to protect US users from the reach of the parent company, based in Beijing – ByteDance Ltd.

However, the Biden administration has not given much attention to those efforts, saying they are merely a drop in the sea and are insufficient to deter Chinese authorities from requesting access to US data or adjusting the algorithm that controls every user’s video feed.

Reports from people familiar with the matter reckon that the US government has demanded ByteDance sell its share in TikTok, otherwise, a ban awaits the app.

The parent company, on the other hand, is doing little to help TikTok in its precarious position. It has been called out before for deceiving regulators, and users alike. An investigation by the Justice Department is underway following an admission by ByteDance that it monitored US journalists to the extent of accessing their IP addresses to figure out their sources.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns after reports surfaced that TikTok “heats up” certain content to increase its visibility, potentially allowing Chinese authorities to impose their ideologies on US users via the popular app. It believed these concerns stick out even when legislators meet with TikTok executives privately.

“I think he can only say what the CCP allows him to say,” Gary Palmer, an Alabama Republican who sits on the committee and is also a member of GOP leadership, in reference to the Chinese Communist Party said. “I anticipate when he comes in, he’s going to try to be the face of an independent, private company, and I just don’t think that’s a fact.”

Is TikTok That Bad Compared To Other Social Media Platforms?

Some will argue that other social media platforms are just as bad as TikTok. They are probably right! They have all come under pressure for contributing to mental health issues in the younger generations. Furthermore, there are questions regarding the freedom they have—to collect personal data and manipulate it for their business needs.

TikTok CEO, Chew is expected to bring the same argument and possibly claim that his company is doing more than what other social media firms are doing. While this school of thought may be acceptable to a certain significant extent, TikTok’s link to China and its ownership complicates the matter due to the risks associated with national security implications

Keep in mind, Chinese companies are bound by law to surrender all data to the government upon request and this is where the headache becomes a migraine. On matters much bigger than TikTok, the relationship between the US and China is strained, coming under pressure a lot more in the past few years.

Lawmakers have also been seen to be casting their net a lot wider than was expected, with some arguing even data collected by American tech firms is at risk of ending up in the hands of antagonistic countries via channels put in place by data brokers. These are firms that collect, license, and sell personal data from third-party platforms.

Various US states are pondering over enacting legislation to limit data brokering businesses, while privacy activists have urged the US Congress to follow suit. However, this argument does not help TikTok’s situation.

Does The Congress Energy and Commerce Committee Have The Power To Bring Change?

It is important to establish that the Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over technology, which means any regulations in this field are referred to this panel. Moreover, other US House committees have expressed concerns over the threat to national security.

Not long ago, the House Foreign Affairs committed voted on one GOP-only bill and that is to put a complete ban on TikTok in the US.

The concerned parties and stakeholders will also be looking forward to the Energy and Commerce Committee later on Thursday to cite a detailed data-privacy bill that was supported by members from both political parties in 2022, however, it did not make much progress in the Senate.

Some legislators, Democrats, seem uneasy about calling out just one company and its popular app. They propose that Congress puts more attention to enacting stricter rules to provide oversight of all platforms and companies engaging in the collection of user data to use it for commercial purposes.

This narrative could be useful in TikTok’s case since at the moment it appears to be bearing the sins of all other social media companies and their platforms.

Is The US Ready To Ban TikTok?

So far, four bills have come up, proposing various ways to ban or control TikTok’s reach and influence in America, but the White House has shown support for only one of them. This is the Senate proposal, authored by Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, which while aiming for complete control, stops short of calling for a ban.

The proposed legislation would empower the Commerce Secretary to assess the security threat posed by technologies held by adversarial countries such as Russia, Iran, and China and implement measures to address such risks as deemed fit.

The bill by Warner and Thune stands out for having bipartisan support in the Democratic-led Senate. However, it is far from becoming law, considering it still needs to pass the GOP-led House.

If the bill passes, its implementation would demand time, running into several months, to put the regulatory framework in place. With that in mind, the earliest the US can ban TikTok is in 2024, close to the country’s presidential election. The facet of the presidential election carries weight because Democrats would not be willing to alienate the younger generation of voters who skew liberal.

Meanwhile, TikTok is sailing in the rough seas here, with little to hang on to prevent a ban and keep operating in the United States. People familiar with the matter say that the app’s security plan may not suffice.

President Biden may attempt to unilaterally ban the app from operating in the US unless ByteDance divests its ownership in TikTok. However, if he does not get explicit approval from Congress for this action, it could be overturned in legal proceedings, like what happened in 2020 when former President Donald Trump tried to ban the app.

Does TikTok Have Alliances In Washington?

A number of civil rights advocacy groups believe banning TikTok in the US could infringe on the citizens’ freedom of speech and expression. For example, American Civil Liberties Union has made it clear that the House proposals are on the verge of disregarding the First Amendment’s freedom of speech guarantee.

Most importantly, TikTok’s most commanding advocates are its ardent users, reported to be gathering power to use against any legislator who attempts to stop their most favored app.

Around thirty TikTok influencers who have over the years gained significant followership will be heading to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to discuss the impact the social media platform has had on their careers, and how it has helped them become popular across the internet.

“It’s the job of elected representatives to listen to their constituents,” Tony Weaver Jr., one of the creators on the app who posts mental health-focused content in form of short videos for his 698,100 followers said during a media event organized by the company in Washington. “If a person were to vote to ban TikTok, I genuinely just don’t think they’re listening to the voices of their constituents. There are a lot of people that use TikTok as a sole kind of lifeline for their business.”

Earlier this week, TikTok CEO Chew brought the matter to the users themselves in a short video. He requested users to share their experiences with the app, and what they love about TikTok and direct their needs to their elected leaders. The video has so far attracted more than 920k likes and 92k comments.

“You’ve got this Shou,” said one user with more than 2.4 million followers on TikTok. “Let me know if you need any support. Always happy to help this incredible app.”

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