#TIKTOK “SPYING’ is against US Unconstitutional Domestic Surveillance Databases of 150 million #Americans
By Sean Moran March 23, 2023
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday that “spying” is not the right word for alleged Chinese surveillance of Americans using his company’s social media platform.
Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) asked Chew if TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has spied on American citizens.
“I don’t think that ‘spying’ is the right way to describe it,” Chew said.
When asked if #TikTok was spying on #Americans on behalf of #CCP TikTok CEO didn’t believe “Spying” was the right word but he didn’t deny it is the CCP gathering information on 150 million Americans against US unconstitutional domestic surveillance databases! 🛑 Tiktok & Fentanyl https://t.co/0bGH3zmuXh pic.twitter.com/M8Vgt0AIGO
— LTrueWest (@LTrueWest) March 23, 2023
House Committee on Energy and Commerce / YouTube
TikTok CEO is asked whether parent company ByteDance has spied on Americans at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party.
“I don’t think ‘spying’ is the right way to describe it,” Shou Chew responds.
Incredible.
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) March 23, 2023
Dunn asked about a report that the FBI and Justice Department are investigating ByteDance after the company acknowledged firing four employees for using the controversial app to track the location of two journalists in the United States.
Breitbart News’s Lucas Nolan reported last week:
After ByteDance admitted that its employees had improperly accessed the data of U.S. users, congressional critics began to express concerns about TikTok’s surveillance practices. Forbes reports that the DOJ has served subpoenas to ByteDance. However, it’s still unclear how far the investigation into the incident has gone. The FBI has also interviewed people in connection with the matter, though it is not yet clear if these interviews are a part of the same investigation.
In a statement, a ByteDance spokesperson addressed the issue, stating, “We have strongly condemned the actions of the individuals found to have been involved, and they are no longer employed at ByteDance.” The spokesperson also confirmed that the company’s internal investigation is ongoing, and ByteDance is committed to cooperating with any official investigations when brought to them.
Concerns over the national security and privacy implications of TikTok have reached a fever pitch in Washington, DC as lawmakers have continued to consider if the legislative branch needs to pursue an outright ban of TikTok or privacy legislation to address the concerns surrounding the popular yet controversial app. Others have called for separating TikTok from ByteDance.
During the hearing, Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) also slammed TikTok for hosting dangerous trends that have killed American teens and children:
As House lawmakers continued to question the TikTok CEO, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called on lawmakers to stop using TikTok, describing it as one of the “biggest geopolitical threats America has ever faced.”
Mid-hearing, Sen. Tillis calls on members of Congress to stop using TikTok. (Pretty wild that some are even still using it.) pic.twitter.com/ziATfrMqkc
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) March 23, 2023