In recent years there has been talk of the Chinese government using TikTok to spy on American citizens. When I first learned of this it further justified my reason to not partake in the social media platform. However, as more information is being released and with the recent congressional hearing between the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, and US congress March 23, 20231 I have become less convinced this is an issue of protecting the youth and national security. During Chews opening statement he expresses how TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a private company. He expresses 60% of the company is owned by global investors, 20% owned by global employees, and 20% owned by the founder. Additionally, 3 out of the 5 board members are Americans. Interestingly, as I continued to watch clips of the hearing it became apparent that members of congress had preconceived notions of the use of TikTok and frankly it was cringing to watch congress make extreme accusations.
“When the Chinese communist government bought a shear of ByteDance its been described as, as the Chinese Communist government’s way of quieter form of control and companies have little choice in selling a stake to the government if they want to stay in business and what I’d like to know when the Chinese Communist government moved to by shears of ByteDance, were you informed beforehand, yes or no?”–Representative Gary James Palmer of Alabama
“Yes or no, ByteDance is required to have a member of the Chinese government on its board with veto power, is that correct?”–Representative Kat Cammack of Florida
Chew states he has NOT seen evidence of the Chinese government having access to TikTok’s data, he’s never been asked nor has he ever provided such data to the Chinese government. He repeatedly expresses ByteDance is a private company, and the Chinese government does not have access to the data. He eventually states to reassure Congress and TikTok’s users the company’s plans to “move the data into the US to be stored on American soil by an American company overseen by American personal so the risk will be similar to any government going to an American company asking for data” better known as Project Texas.2
Project Texas
TikTok US Data Security (USDS) aka Project Texas is an independent task force responsible for managing access to user data and safeguarding content delivered on the app. Employees of this task force will report to an independent board and NOT ByteDance. Employees will also have a much more strenuous vetting process for hiring compared to traditional hiring practices of social media companies. In other words, Project Texas will provide more protection for user data than some US social medial companies (y’all remember the Facebook data breach of 2021). Yet, it seemed this was still not enough for Congress. Some might argue Chew could be lying which could be a possibility. Yes, could he have lied that many times under penalty of perjury OR is it possible the accusations congress were making were fueled by misinformation?
Facebook’s Involvement
In 2022, it was discovered Facebook paid GOP firm to promote negative coverage of TikTok. Interestingly, Facebook is known to not have the cleanest record when it comes to the growth of its success. Facebook has bought out smaller companies before they grew into larger competitive companies (i.e., Instagram, WhatsApp) or has copied ideas from other companies (i.e., filters from Snapchat, reels from TikTok). One could argue some of this misinformation could be the result of Facebook and its TikTok smear campaign.
China and New World Currency
For years the US dollar has been the dominant world currency. However, in recent years China seems to have plans of providing competition with a rival currency and has been in alliance with other countries to push this agenda. I speculate the US strained relationship with China plays a role in their concern for TikTok.
To Lie or Not to Lie
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the US being concerned with other countries having access to our information especially when such countries are known to have nuclear weapons, propaganda, etc., but I found it annoying congress seamed to focus solely on attacking Chew opposed to having an actual conversation. Why ask him a question just to follow up with “well I find that hard to believe”? Why didn’t they ask more questions about Project Texas, which frankly is shining light on how US social media companies should be protecting our data. Why invite him just to indirectly call him a liar?