Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew never got through with his arguments

Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew never got through with his arguments

San Francisco, 3/24/2023

This line of reasoning leads inevitably to the desired result – namely, the claim that Tiktok is from China, has ties to the CCP, and is therefore mandated to spy in the US and other Western countries.

During the five-hour hearing, President Joe Biden’s Democrats and Republicans emphasized with rare unity that previous steps to isolate US data from the short video app from the Chinese parent company Bytendace were not enough for them. A key topic on Thursday was ownership.

„Tiktok must become an American company with American values and cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party,“ said Democratic MP Darren Soto. Republican Marianette Miller-Meeks also emphasized that the technology of other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter was „developed in the USA, according to US guidelines, under US data protection laws“. For his part, Shou Zi Chew referred to the problems of US platforms with data protection, such as the Facebook scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica.

It seemed at first that the Tiktok boss could hit a trump card when he emphasized that they are not a subsidiary of Bytedance, because 60 percent of this incorrectly labeled „Chinese“ company is owned by Western investors and the official headquarters are also not in China, but on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. The counterattack came immediately: Critics argued that the Chinese founders held 20 percent of the control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance had a large headquarters in Beijing. According to media reports, the US government is demanding an exit from Chinese shareholders.

Understandable: Tiktok was disappointed with the course of the hearing.