TikTok Ban? CEO says data protection is top priority

by ian

As lawmakers consider a national ban against TikTok, company CEO Shou Zi Chew defended the popular app to a House subcommittee today.

Chew said the safety of 150 million Americans who use the platform was a top priority, including their data. The company is already moving to firewall all American data on Texas-based servers.

The CEO said it was a myth that TikTok was beholden to share data with the Chinese government and that no request to do so has ever been made.

While the parent company ByteDance began in China, he said it is now a global company with only 20% of shares owned by the Chinese founders.

But TikTok-tracking pixels were recently found on 30 state government websites. This means possible data up for sale could include driver’s licenses, sensitive tax information, or medical forms.

Still, progressive lawmaker Jamaal Bowman defended the platform and claimed xenophobic Republicans are unfairly targeting TikTok yesterday.

Other Democrats have admitted a TikTok ban would be like committing political suicide with the under-35 voting population.

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