As criticism of the social media giant TikTok continues to grow, the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has been scheduled to testify at an upcoming House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
The committee shared the news of Chew testifying in a press release on Monday, noting that he will be the sole witness during the hearing on March 23.
Chew is expected to be testifying on TikTok’s privacy and data security practices, which has caused numerous states and the federal government to implement bans of the app on official government devices.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently introduced a bill that would ban the use of TikTok in the United States out of fear that the social media site’s parent company, ByteDance, has not been forthcoming about the role China has in accessing and viewing US user data.
Hawley and other officials have questioned whether the company is allowing the foreign nation to use US data for intelligence or disinformation purposes.
“[TikTok] is China’s backdoor into Americans’ lives. It threatens our children’s privacy as well as their mental health,” Hawley said in a tweet on Tuesday. “Last month Congress banned it on all government devices. Now I will introduce legislation to ban it nationwide.”
Several other topics will be discussed during the hearing as the committee looks to learn more about TikTok’s “relationship to the Chinese Communist Party,” the press release said. The committee will also question Chew on the impact the app has on young users.
“We’ve made our concerns clear with TikTok,” the committee’s chair, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), said in a statement. “It is now time to continue the committee’s efforts to hold Big Tech accountable by bringing TikTok before the committee to provide complete and honest answers for people.”
Brooke Oberwetter, a spokesperson for TikTok, shared a statement with The Wall Street Journal following the news of the hearing.
“We welcome the opportunity to set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about US national security before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,” Oberwetter said in a statement. “We hope that by sharing details of our comprehensive plans with the full Committee, Congress can take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand.”
Chew has been in his role as the CEO of TikTok since April 2021 but has stayed out of the spotlight for the most part. Vanessa Pappas, the company’s COO, has been the more public executive for the company, and she faced members of Congress during a senate hearing last year.
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