Amid a national hysteria claiming the popular video-sharing app is a Chinese Trojan Horse, a MintPress News investigation has found dozens of ex-U.S. State Department officials working in key positions at TikTok.
by Alan Macleod
Part 4 - Political Theater
TikTok is an immensely influential medium shaping how the world understands itself, particularly for younger generations. A 2021 study found that 31% of people aged between 18 and 24 worldwide had used the app in the past week, with 9% using it as a primary source of news.
This is, no doubt, part of the reason U.S. officials are so concerned with it. Last month, TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi was brought before Congress and challenged on his company’s connections to the People’s Republic of China. Though TikTok is a subsidiary of Chinese firm ByteDance, it insists it operates as an independent entity and that it has never shared any user data with Beijing.
Nevertheless, questions persist about the app’s practices and security features. Unfortunately, the opportunity to interrogate Chew on more substantive issues was overtaken by political grandstanding from elected officials, who seemed uninterested in his answers and more concerned with scoring political points or achieving quotable soundbites.
This is, no doubt, part of the reason U.S. officials are so concerned with it. Last month, TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi was brought before Congress and challenged on his company’s connections to the People’s Republic of China. Though TikTok is a subsidiary of Chinese firm ByteDance, it insists it operates as an independent entity and that it has never shared any user data with Beijing.
Nevertheless, questions persist about the app’s practices and security features. Unfortunately, the opportunity to interrogate Chew on more substantive issues was overtaken by political grandstanding from elected officials, who seemed uninterested in his answers and more concerned with scoring political points or achieving quotable soundbites.
There was also more than an undertone of xenophobia throughout the events, with Chew, on multiple occasions, having to remind his questioners that he was not, in fact, Chinese, only for them to ignore him and continue to insinuate that he was. Republican senator Tom Cotton went further, demanding that Chew be deported and insisting that “We can’t allow Chinese citizens, or anyone affiliated with the [Communist Party of China], to own one more inch of American soil” – a statement that evokes memories of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a racist immigration bill that was only fully repudiated in the 1960s. Chew is from Singapore.
“We’re committed to providing a safe, secure platform that fosters an inclusive place for our amazing, diverse communities to call home. It’s a shame today’s conversation felt rooted in xenophobia,” wrote TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas.
Chew was also subjected to bizarre questioning from politicians entirely ignorant of how modern telecommunications work. Congressman Richard Hudson (R—NC) asked whether TikTok could access Wi-Fi networks, a question so obvious it left Chew assuming he had misunderstood the question. Meanwhile, Buddy Carter (R—GA) demanded to know whether the app utilized users’ phone cameras to track dilation in their eyes so that they could market shocking videos more effectively to them. Watching “clueless” Congresspersons asking boomer questions was “hard to watch,” concluded tech magazine Futurism.
Chew was also subjected to bizarre questioning from politicians entirely ignorant of how modern telecommunications work. Congressman Richard Hudson (R—NC) asked whether TikTok could access Wi-Fi networks, a question so obvious it left Chew assuming he had misunderstood the question. Meanwhile, Buddy Carter (R—GA) demanded to know whether the app utilized users’ phone cameras to track dilation in their eyes so that they could market shocking videos more effectively to them. Watching “clueless” Congresspersons asking boomer questions was “hard to watch,” concluded tech magazine Futurism.
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