CEO Of TikTok Muak Associated With Chinese Communist Party At Child Safety Session

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew (photo: twitter @shjoew)

JAKARTA The US Congress's judicial committee held a child safety hearing. Supposedly, this session discussed social media actions, but Congress asked TikTok off-top questions.

Over the past few years, the video platform owned by ByteDance has been accused of links to the Chinese government even though TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has denied it. This was again mentioned by members of Congress in front of other social media CEOs.

Reporting from The Verge, lawmakers initially asked lawmakers to provide up-to-date information about Project Texas or initiatives to place United States (US) customer data into an oracle-run hub.

However, this question went wide and began to lead to unnecessary topics. Senator Tom Cotton has asked several questions about the citizens ofEW even though he already knows about it.

You often say that you live in Singapore, Cotton said. Later, the Senator asked whetherEW had applied for Chinese or US citizenship. Chew only answered with the word no.

After that, Cotton again asked about the Chew background. This time, Cotton's question was much more sensitive and clear. The senator asked, "Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?"

Chew is of course offended by such questions. Firmly speaking, Chew replied, 'Senator! I am Singaporean! (of course) not.' After the question was answered, Cotton did not explain what Chew citizenship had to do with the trial they held.

The hearing regarding the impact of social media on these children was held on Wednesday, January 31. During the hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee invited several other social media CEOs such as X, Meta, Snap, and Discord.

During the trial, five social media leaders were asked about the potential dangers posed by the platform they were building. MPs have talked a lot about emotional impacts, child predators, and sexual harassment material.