TikTok CEO Testifies in Congress
We ran the numbers:
There are 3,458 news articles covering this topic.
32% (1,104) are left-leaning, 39% (1,364) are centrist, and 29% (990) are right-leaning.
On Thursday, TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in Congress before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on questions about national security and data security. Left-leaning articles highlight that after the hearing, it is still not clear whether TikTok will be banned in the U.S., while right-leaning articles highlight that Chew was evasive on questions relating to China’s alleged human rights abuses.
USA Today published a centrist article reporting that Chew fielded questions from lawmakers about how TikTok handles Americans’ personal data who at times suggested that the app should be banned due to concerns about national security. The social media app has drawn scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans because of the supposed relationship between the Chinese government and its parent company, ByteDance. In the hearing, Chew attempted to convince a skeptical Congress that the app does not pose any threats to Americans’ privacy data.
A left-leaning article by The Washington Post highlighted that after the nearly six-hour hearing concluded, the 150 million Americans who use TikTok are left with no clearer answer to whether the app would be banned in the U.S. Over the course of the hearing, Chew spent much time trying to assure the lawmakers that TikTok prioritizes user security and is not a tool of the Chinese government, although he did not answer questions about Chinese human rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic group in China.
A right-leaning article by Fox News highlighted that Chew was noticeably evasive on questions related to China’s human rights abuses and repeatedly insisted that he does not answer to his parent company or Chinese authorities. Chew was asked thrice whether he believed that the Chinese government was committing human rights abuses and answered that he was at the hearing to focus on questions pertaining to TikTok itself but directed the lawmakers to the app, which he says contains media on many such topics.