US House Of Representatives Members Ask For Explanation On Alleged Film Content Censor Jimmy Lai On TikTok

Chairman of the United States House of Representatives committee, Mike Gallagher. (photo: twitter @radiotalkermike)

JAKARTA - The chairman of the United States House of Representatives committee on the Chinese Communist Party and several other lawmakers on Thursday expressed "deep concern" about TikTok. They also asked for answers regarding reports that China's short video app TikTok censored in censoring accounts posting content from films about Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Mike Gallagher and 12 other Republican lawmakers said in a letter to TikTok CEO Show Zi Chew that they wanted "additional information about TikTok's content moderation policies and practices."

The Michigan-based Institute of Acton said last week their TikTok account was suspended for posting content from a film about Lai. MPs said the account was restored after media reports on the suspension.

TikTok itself has not commented on it.

TikTok owned by ByteDance notified US lawmakers in a letter on May 4 that "TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivity" and does not increase content "in the US at the request of any government, including the Chinese Communist Party."

TikTok says it already has more than 5,000 employees and contractors focused on content moderation for the United States.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, and John Thune, a Republican, in March proposed legislation to grant the Department of Commerce of New Power to review, block and handle various transactions involving information technology and foreign communications that pose a national security risk.

The White House and 26 senators support the proposal, while critics say the law is too widespread and harms American civil liberties including more than 150 million TikTok users in the US.

Chew appeared ahead of Congress in March and faced difficult questions about national security concerns.

TikTok said it had spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts and rejected espionage allegations.

The Joe Biden administration has also demanded owners of TikTok from China to release their shares or face bans in the US. President Donald Trump's efforts in 2020 to ban TikTok from being blocked by US courts.