Mr. Chew, a Harvard-educated Singaporean military reservist and former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, will testify earlier than the Home Power and Commerce Committee, whose members have already signaled considerations that Beijing might affect TikTok content material and harvest consumer knowledge.
In his ready testimony, Mr. Chew pledged to firewall U.S. consumer knowledge from international entry and protect the platform from authorities interference. He additionally stated the platform would work to make sure a secure atmosphere for younger folks, one other concern of committee members.
Regardless of these guarantees, many in Congress are skeptical that TikTok can ever be past the attain of the Chinese language authorities so long as it’s owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. The Biden administration just lately demanded that TikTok’s Chinese language house owners promote their stakes or face a doable ban.
That makes Thursday’s look one thing of a chance for Mr. Chew. The corporate is hoping he can persuade lawmakers that the corporate’s $1.5 billion plan to safe consumer knowledge makes a pressured sale pointless. However the listening to might additionally function a platform to amplify considerations in regards to the app’s safety, including to stress to dam entry to the app within the U.S.
“The proof towards TikTok’s Chinese language-controlled mum or dad firm, ByteDance, is overwhelming, which makes this a high-risk listening to for the corporate and its defenders,” stated Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), a number one critic of the corporate. Any stumble, he added, “will enhance requires a ban.”
Mr. Chew has stated he doesn’t think about Thursday’s listening to a do-or-die second. However he dangers accelerating TikTok’s banishment from the U.S. with a poor efficiency, stated Invoice Plummer, who ran authorities and public relations for Huawei Applied sciences Co.’s Washington workplace from 2010 to 2018.
Huawei, a Chinese language telecommunications-equipment firm, finally failed to steer U.S. leaders from successfully banning it from main U.S. enterprise.
Since some Biden administration officers and Congress members have already dismissed Mr. Chew’s plan to silo off TikTok’s U.S. operations from China, his finest technique is expressing openness to divesting a few of TikTok’s Chinese language possession, Mr. Plummer stated.
“It doesn’t matter if that’s the perfect factor to do,” Mr. Plummer stated. “What issues is what the federal government desires.”
A number of payments are into account in Congress that will ban TikTok outright, sometimes by banning U.S. firms from doing enterprise with it. Some would additionally permit the federal government to ban or limit different apps with ties to hostile international governments.
Mr. Chew seemingly will even spend time on Thursday responding to lawmakers’ considerations about exploitation of youngsters via the platform. Many lawmakers are also sad that TikTok’s mum or dad firm serves very totally different content material to kids inside China.
In his ready testimony, Mr. Chew stated that the platform has taken plenty of proactive steps to raised defend kids—together with measures that transcend these employed by different platforms. For instance, accounts registered to teenagers beneath 16 are set to personal by default, they usually can also’t ship direct messages. Their content material is ineligible for advice.
Democrats have typically been extra supportive of TikTok than Republicans, calling a ban overly broad. A handful of congressional supporters led by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) rallied on the Capitol steps Wednesday night to indicate their assist for TikTok and its creator neighborhood.
An precise ban on TikTok faces an array of sensible and authorized hurdles, and two federal judges struck down former President Donald Trump’s earlier makes an attempt to take action. Any new try would seemingly harm Democrats greater than Republicans, as TikTok’s dominant viewers consists of youthful people who find themselves extra prone to vote Democratic.
That stated, the app’s wild recognition—the platform now claims to have 150 million month-to-month customers—provides to the political dangers of any crackdown.
“Some politicians have began speaking about banning TikTok,” Mr. Chew stated in a TikTok video this week. “Now this might take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.”
On Wednesday morning, TikTok helped manage a information convention on the Capitol that includes dozens of TikTok personalities, who made their very own case that banning the app would suppress Individuals’ speech. The corporate has additionally just lately expanded its lobbying and public-relations efforts and run adverts at Washington subway stops and elsewhere touting the corporate’s dedication to consumer security.
Mr. Chew has additionally been assembly with members of the Home committee, together with Rep. Buddy Carter (R., Ga.). The assembly “didn’t alleviate the congressman’s considerations” about TikTok’s impacts on nationwide safety in addition to psychological well being, a spokesman stated, including, “He plans to handle all these points throughout the Thursday listening to.”
Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) even refused a gathering with Mr. Chew forward of the listening to, a senior aide stated.
Some Democrats seem extra open-minded, however nonetheless skeptical.
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D., N.Y.), a senior member of the Home panel, stated she desires to listen to Mr. Chew tackle considerations in regards to the influence of TikTok’s advice algorithm in addition to clarify why the corporate has often stumbled in its dealing with of American customers’ knowledge.
Ms. Clarke didn’t say she supported a ban, however she additionally didn’t rule it out. “I’m open to no matter it takes to guard the American folks, their knowledge, [and] our nationwide safety. ” she stated.
