A recap of TikTok CEO Shou Chew's testimony before Congress, in which he struggled to address national security concerns over ByteDance's ownership of TikTok
“[T]he day was dominated by political grandstanding that failed to acknowledge the real solutions already underway through Project Texas or productively address industry-wide issues of youth safety.” Full statement below: https://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Nolan Brown / @enbrown : lol, now Rep. Guthrie is criticizing TikTok for not removing U.S. content as quickly as Chinese social media apps ban things... Lawmakers really can't decide if the issue is that we hate Chinese ways or should be more like them Alejandra Caraballo / @esqueer_ : Banning TikTok for privacy reasons is absurd when Meta can collect the same data and sell it to governments and foreign companies. Surveillance is apparently not an issue if it's done for profit. The fundamental problem is that the US has no meaningful data privacy laws. https://twitter.com/... Aaron Parnas / @aaronparnas : I understand the First Amendment concerns with a potential TikTok ban, and as a member of Gen Z, I understand the impact this app has had on my generation. But, I have serious concerns with TikTok's content moderation (or lack thereof). @aclu : The government has no right to ban entire platforms and censor the free flow of information. This is a clear violation of our First Amendment rights. https://www.cbsnews.com/... Scott Hanselman / @shanselman : Watching this TikTok hearing. There's not a single congressperson who has the technical background to ask or understand the questions and answers. Not even close. Dan Primack / @danprimack : (TikTok also works with someone else affiliated with a national political party... Oracle chairman Larry Ellison). Will Oremus / @willoremus : Full house, including tons of press and a contingent of TikTok creators, for today's House hearing on TikTok as CEO Shou Chew takes his seat just now. https://twitter.com/... Makena Kelly / @kellymakena : At today's E&C hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Hearing starts soon. Chew arrived a few minutes ago! https://twitter.com/... Olivia Solon / @oliviasolon : The TikTok hearing is mainly members of congress shouting “YES OR NO? YES OR NO?” over CEO Shou Zi Chew after questions that can't meaningfully be answered with either Sara Fischer / @sarafischer : It's clear that @tiktok_us CEO Shou Zi Chew is trying to tread very carefully with his answers on Cap Hill. He dodges yes/no questions, says he will get back to the committee, etc. He is doing a good job of not perjuring himself, but it's not making for a convincing testimony. https://twitter.com/... Will Oremus / @willoremus : I wrote about the odd sight of American lawmakers grilling TikTok's CEO on why he can't moderate content more like his Chinese counterparts — and TikTok's CEO missing a chance to turn that question around on them. Live updates here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Nolan Brown / @enbrown : goodness, this is insurfferable so far... TikTok's CEO keeps essentially saying he's not an agent of the Chinese Communist Party and the lawmakers are like... BUT AREN'T YOU ACTUALLY? like he's going to trip up Scooby Doo villain style if they keep saying it Will Oremus / @willoremus : TikTok's CEO says TikTok doesn't sell users' data, echoing a line familiar from Facebook privacy hearings. But he declined to commit never to do so—suggesting his gameplan for the hearing is to avoid making any new, binding commitments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Drew Harwell / @drewharwell : “Does TikTok access the home wi-fi network” is the new “Senator, we run ads” Peter Hamby / @peterhamby : One of the biggest miscalculations TikTok made here was coming into this hearing bragging about how deeply enmeshed TikTok is in American society. Misreading the room by a mile. https://twitter.com/... Richard Blumenthal / @senblumenthal : If any proof were needed, today's hearing shows TikTok must be divested & radically reformed to stop a clear & present danger to both national security & children's safety. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @businessinsider : The TikTok CEO's day in Congress was a ‘disaster’ that failed to prove a sale or ban isn't the only way forward, Wall Street says https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... Eva / @evacide : If you think that the US needs to ban TikTok because the Chinese government uses it to run influence ops, wait until you find out how easy it is to run an influence op on good ol' American platforms without even owning them: https://www.theguardian.com/ ... @washingtonpost : TikTok's CEO came to address national security concerns about the Chinese-owned app, but was met with an unusually unified coalition of lawmakers. The Biden administration may not have the legal authority to ban TikTok with out Congressional action. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Rihard Jarc / @rihardjarc : For TikTok it would probably be better if the CEO wouldn't show up for the hearing. This is just a big fail. Mark is a beast compared to this guy. Mark Warner / @markwarner : Nothing we heard from the TikTok CEO assuaged concerns about the fact that China-based companies, including TikTok's parent company, are ultimately required to do the bidding of the CCP. @SenJohnThune and I have a bipartisan bill to investigate and mitigate these threats. https://twitter.com/... Sar Haribhakti / @sarthakgh : Ah yes the company owned by one of the largest Chinese tech companies founded, operated and scaled in jurisdiction owned by the CCP is lecturing the American Congress on First Amendment https://twitter.com/... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : Break up Google and get rid of surveillance advertising and also ban TikTok. This isn't hard. It's called having a society. Cecilia Kang / @ceciliakang : Chair @cathymcmorris asked about spying on journalists. She is referring to this. A story broken first by @ebakerwhite https://www.nytimes.com/... @tiktokcomms : 2/ Also not mentioned today by members of the @HouseCommerce Committee: the livelihoods of the 5 million businesses on TikTok or the First Amendment implications of banning a platform loved by 150 million Americans.
Washington Post
Context & Ripple Effects
TikTok entered the hearing after trying to build credibility in Washington through transparency initiatives that echoed Huawei's unsuccessful trust-building strategy, while reports said it was also mobilizing creators against a forced-sale push. The testimony became a test of whether Project Texas could separate operational safeguards from the ownership question.
The episode helps explain why the debate later consolidated around a bipartisan ByteDance-divestment proposal rather than voluntary assurances alone. It also retains a live tension between security intervention and the legal protections for cross-border speech and content flows.
First-order effects
TikTok and ByteDance leave the hearing with Congress less persuaded that Project Texas and existing data practices adequately address risks tied to ByteDance ownership.
Lawmakers pressing for a ban, divestment, or sharper reforms gain political support; TikTok's unresolved answer on whether it would ever sell user data reinforces scrutiny of its governance claims.
Second-order effects
TikTok must devote more effort to proving that US data, moderation, and operational decisions are insulated from ByteDance, while a voluntary safeguards strategy becomes less likely to settle the dispute.
A sale-or-ban approach shifts pressure to app-distribution and access-control mechanisms, while exposing the policy conflict flagged in coverage of the security risks a forced sale could create for TikTok's defenses against adversarial threats.
Third-order effects
If ownership becomes the decisive test, foreign-linked consumer platforms may face market-access rules that require structural separation rather than compliance commitments.
The case points toward a durable US policy divide: security authorities may seek control over distribution and data access, while courts and policymakers must weigh those measures against platform-wide speech and content-flow protections.
The trend: TikTok is a leading case in the shift from policing platform conduct to treating ownership and control of digital infrastructure as national-security issues.
Sure, TikTok is terrible in many ways. But the hypocrisy of its critics, especially members of Congress, is almost beyond belief. — The problem with TikTok is the same one we have with countless other Internet products: They are relentless violators of our privacy and security…
If you think the US needs a TikTok ban and not a comprehensive privacy law regulating data brokers, you don't care about privacy, you just hate that a Chinese company has built a dominant social media platform.
If you don't custody consumer funds, you are *not* a money transmitter. The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provides this necessary certainty for miners, validators, wallet software providers, and the entire blockchain ecosystem. https://twitter.com/...
1/ Our CEO, @ShouChew, came prepared to answer questions from Congress, but unfortunately, the day was dominated by political grandstanding that failed to acknowledge real solutions already underway through Project Texas or address industry-wide issues of youth safety.
Congress asked TikTok's CEO if he'd be willing to divest from Chinese ownership. His incredibly fair, savage answer? “American social companies don't have a good track record with data privacy and user security. I mean, look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.” https://twitter.c…
The national security and privacy concerns are well-founded, sure, but it also just seems transparently and obviously the case that a lot of the animus against Tik Tok is that it's a massively powerful global tech platform from China and not “ours”
IMO this is done. I don't see any way TikTok isn't banned at this point. Bi-partisan certainty the CCP is spying on 150 million Americans. They're furious. I have never seen them lock-step in a hearing like this.
Every major social app we use was either seed funded by Russian oligarchs (Facebook/Insta, Twitter) or has current ownership stakes with the Saudis (this app here). We need a heuristic data privacy law. If it starts with TikTok, good, but there's something else going on here. htt…
TikTok statement in response to the hearing, per a spox: — “[T]he day was dominated by political grandstanding that failed to acknowledge the real solutions already underway through Project Texas or productively address industry-wide issues of youth safety.” Full statement below:…
lol, now Rep. Guthrie is criticizing TikTok for not removing U.S. content as quickly as Chinese social media apps ban things... Lawmakers really can't decide if the issue is that we hate Chinese ways or should be more like them
Banning TikTok for privacy reasons is absurd when Meta can collect the same data and sell it to governments and foreign companies. Surveillance is apparently not an issue if it's done for profit. The fundamental problem is that the US has no meaningful data privacy laws. https://…
Watching this TikTok hearing. There's not a single congressperson who has the technical background to ask or understand the questions and answers. Not even close.
Full house, including tons of press and a contingent of TikTok creators, for today's House hearing on TikTok as CEO Shou Chew takes his seat just now. https://twitter.com/...
The TikTok hearing is mainly members of congress shouting “YES OR NO? YES OR NO?” over CEO Shou Zi Chew after questions that can't meaningfully be answered with either
It's clear that @tiktok_us CEO Shou Zi Chew is trying to tread very carefully with his answers on Cap Hill. He dodges yes/no questions, says he will get back to the committee, etc. He is doing a good job of not perjuring himself, but it's not making for a convincing testimony. ht…
I wrote about the odd sight of American lawmakers grilling TikTok's CEO on why he can't moderate content more like his Chinese counterparts — and TikTok's CEO missing a chance to turn that question around on them. Live updates here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twi…
goodness, this is insurfferable so far... TikTok's CEO keeps essentially saying he's not an agent of the Chinese Communist Party and the lawmakers are like... BUT AREN'T YOU ACTUALLY? like he's going to trip up Scooby Doo villain style if they keep saying it
TikTok's CEO says TikTok doesn't sell users' data, echoing a line familiar from Facebook privacy hearings. But he declined to commit never to do so—suggesting his gameplan for the hearing is to avoid making any new, binding commitments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https:/…
Today, members of Congress who have never used TikTok will be calling for the ban of a free-expression platform used by 150 million across the U.S. We're covering it all here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Congressional hearings would be much better if Committee rules prohibited loaded questions. Not all questions can be answered with yes/no answers. https://twitter.com/...
Ah yes the company owned by one of the largest Chinese tech companies founded, operated and scaled in jurisdiction owned by the CCP is lecturing the American Congress on First Amendment https://twitter.com/...
2/ Also not mentioned today by members of the @HouseCommerce Committee: the livelihoods of the 5 million businesses on TikTok or the First Amendment implications of banning a platform loved by 150 million Americans.
The issue is not just data, it's a powerful foreign adversary controlling what 150M Americans watch. That's gotta stop. There's an odd reluctance to admit China is an adversary. It is. https://twitter.com/...
One of the biggest miscalculations TikTok made here was coming into this hearing bragging about how deeply enmeshed TikTok is in American society. Misreading the room by a mile. https://twitter.com/...
If any proof were needed, today's hearing shows TikTok must be divested & radically reformed to stop a clear & present danger to both national security & children's safety. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Mark Zuckerberg's Georgetown speech, which was a pretty obvious effort to shift scrutiny off his company, was in Oct. 2019. He warned about Chinese competition and TikTok. Some 3.5 years later, this TIkTok hearing has to be his and Facebook's dream scenario.
Arguments of the form “TikTok poses privacy risks but so do Facebook and Twitter” are...insane? Yes, TikTok poses some of the same risks as other platforms, but also the Chinese government is an authoritarian dictatorship that might invade our ally Taiwan in the coming years.
So...walling off U.S. TikTok from ByteDance in Project Texas seems to be a no-go with U.S. lawmakers and officials. Forcing ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok is a no-go with China. Is an attempted ban the only option left?
The TikTok CEO's day in Congress was a ‘disaster’ that failed to prove a sale or ban isn't the only way forward, Wall Street says https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
A lot of the comments on @NBCNews' post are about how users trust TikTok and Shou Chew more than they trust Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. https://twitter.com/...
TikTok CEO testimony so far we would characterize as a “mini disaster” for this key moment for TikTok. TikTok is now poster child of the US/China tensions and lawmakers have a lot of q's with not enough concrete answers. Positive for Meta, Snapchat, and Google in eyes of Street
If you think that the US needs to ban TikTok because the Chinese government uses it to run influence ops, wait until you find out how easy it is to run an influence op on good ol' American platforms without even owning them: https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
it can't be overstated how much of the TikTok hysteria is seeded around DC by lobbyists for companies that couldn't build innovative competitors, don't actually care about consumer privacy, feel they're inherently owed the money TikTok makes, or are just straight up racist
The posturing was completely Machiavellian. Just years before that, Zuckerberg had been courting Xi and exploring ways to bring Facebook to China. And it didn't stop the media or political scrutiny of Facebook in the years that followed.
My biggest concern about banning TikTok is that it would be a giveaway to Facebook, but the obvious solution is to ban Facebook and Instagram as well. https://twitter.com/...
I think of Tiktok as competing with YouTube much more than Meta, and the security concern as coming from this as a form of media, not from private data (which I think is pretty overblown). Would you let a company controlled by the Chinese state buy Netflix?
TikTok's CEO came to address national security concerns about the Chinese-owned app, but was met with an unusually unified coalition of lawmakers. The Biden administration may not have the legal authority to ban TikTok with out Congressional action. https://www.washingtonpost.com…
A social media app from Country X is popular among millions of citizens in Country Z. The leaders of Z watch with concern as citizens engage with the app. Z bans the app. I'm not talking about TikTok. I'm talking about what Beijing did to Facebook, Twitter more than a decade ago.
Nothing we heard from the TikTok CEO assuaged concerns about the fact that China-based companies, including TikTok's parent company, are ultimately required to do the bidding of the CCP. @SenJohnThune and I have a bipartisan bill to investigate and mitigate these threats. https:/…
I am no TikTok fan. But the US government banning TikTok over alleged Chinese ties are wrong. Its paranoia rooted in the fact that all tech companies must cooperate and provide data to US gov as arms of it's surveillance system. They assume China is the same as US.