Chew will be appearing for the first time before Congress when
he testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on
March 23.
Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said
Thursday lawmakers "need to know what actions the company is
taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms."
McMorris Rodgers and other Republicans in December wrote TikTok
saying said "many children are exposed to non-stop offerings of
inappropriate content that TikTok’s algorithm force-feeds to
them." They also raised concerns that TikTok livestreamed events
allow adult TikTok users to offer monetary rewards to "persuade
children to perform sexually suggestive acts."
TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, said the Biden
administration had threatened to ban the app in the United
States if its Chinese owners did not sell their stakes in the
company.
"Americans deserve to know the extent to which their privacy is
jeopardized and their data is manipulated by ByteDance-owned
TikTok’s relationship with China," she added. The U.S.
government has raised concerns that TikTok's user data could be
passed on to China's government.
TikTok, which did not immediately comment, said earlier this
month it is developing a tool that will allow parents to prevent
their teens from viewing content containing certain words or
hashtags on the short-form video app.
TikTok announced new features to help users limit the amount of
time spent on the app. Accounts belonging to users under 18 will
automatically have a time limit of one hour per day, and teens
will need to enter a passcode to continue using the app.
TikTok and the Biden administration have been negotiating for
more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok said
it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security
efforts and rejects spying allegations.
The Biden administration demand for divestiture was the most
dramatic in a series of recent steps by U.S. officials and
legislators.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](column_spacer.png)
|
|