What's happened
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress on Thursday, with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee raising their concerns about how much access the Chinese government has to user data, as well as how much influence the Chinese Communist Party has over it.
Why it matters
TikTok is facing a complete ban in the US over fears that China is using the app as a covert tool for spying and spreading propaganda. With more than 150 million TikTok users in the US, many will be following Thursday’s proceedings closely to see if Biden’s administration follows India by banning TikTok.
What the papers say
The Guardian, Euronews, The Independent, Reuters
How we got here
TikTok has consistently denied allegations that it is a national security risk, but the app has been banned from government and military-issued devices in the US and other countries. Some countries, like India, have even issued a nationwide ban of TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps as a result of national security worries.
More on these topics
-
TikTok/Douyin is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based Internet technology company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming.
-
The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.
-
China, officially the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019.
-
Shou Zi Chew is a Singaporean businessman and entrepreneur who has served as chief executive officer of TikTok since 2021.
-
ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese multinational internet technology company headquartered in Beijing. It was founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012. ByteDance is reportedly worth over US$100 billion as of May 2020.
ByteDance's core product, Toutiao, is a content platf
-
Aidan Kohn-Murphy (born 2003 or 2004) is an American social media content creator and political activist. He is the founder of Gen-Z for Change, a non-profit advocacy organization that uses social media to promote civil discourse and political action...
-
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main, historic rival, the Democratic Party.
-
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main rival, the Republican Party.