The growing gap between the United States and China over technological leadership and national security is now symbolized by TikTok. The app, which has 150 million American users, has become a flashpoint in a technological cold war between the two nations, and yesterday, Shou Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, was criticized by American legislators for more than five hours.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers interrogated Chew during the contentious hearing, accusing him of maintaining ties to the Chinese government and endangering the mental health of teenage users of TikTok.
Chew attempted to minimize the app’s ties to ByteDance, its Chinese proprietor. He told lawmakers about TikTok’s plan to store data from American users on American soil and that the app did not censor posts at China’s request. However, his testimony did not appear to assuage lawmakers’ concerns.
The authoritarian government of China has extensive control over technology companies and their data. Employees of ByteDance obtained confidential data from American users and spied on journalists. However, no proof showing a current risk of TikTok providing data from users’ phones to the Chinese government has been declassified by US officials.