|
On
Thursday TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the U.S.
House Energy and Commerce Committee amid growing calls for a ban
over national security concerns at a time when relations between
Beijing and Washington have deteriorated.
Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Mark Pocan and Robert Garcia and
TikTok creators called at a press conference in Washington for
broad-based privacy legislation that would address all large
social media companies.
"Why the hysteria and the panic and the targeting of TikTok?"
Bowman asked. "Let's do the right thing here - comprehensive
social media reform as it relates to privacy and security."
Still, far more U.S. lawmakers want TikTok banned. Critics fear
that TikTok user data in the United States could be passed on to
China's government. Last week, TikTok said the administration of
President Joe Biden demanded its Chinese owners divest their
stakes or it face a potential ban.
Creators talked on Wednesday about posting videos of baking
cakes or selling greeting cards to TikTok followers. Some held
up signs saying TikTok benefits small businesses. TikTok says 5
million businesses use the app.
TikTok creator Jason Linton uses TikTok to share videos of his
three adopted children in Oklahoma and has interacted with
people around the world.
"I am asking our politicians - don't take away the community
that we've all built - a community that lasts, that loves,"
Linton said at the press conference.
Pocan said a "xenophobic witch hunt" is motivating some in
Congress to seek a TikTok ban. "Banning TikTok isn't the answer.
Making sure Americans data is safe is," he said.
Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor on
Wednesday that TikTok is a threat that needs to be addressed but
it is not the only surveillance threat to young people. That
position "is deliberately missing the Big Tech forest for the
TikTok trees."
Democratic Senator Mark Warner said two additional senators
backed his bipartisan legislation with Republican John Thune to
give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok.
"Congress needs to give the administration the tools to review
and mitigate the harms posed by foreign technology products that
come from adversarial nations," Warner said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Grant McCool)
[© 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 This material may not be published,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.
|
|
