The odds of the U.S. banning TikTok are higher after the app’s CEO testified before a House committee, according to analysts. During the hearing, American politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — expressed frustration over what they saw as evasive and unconvincing answers about China’s influence over TikTok and the communist regime’s ability to track user data via the app, as well as TikTok’s efforts to curb misinformation and harmful content, particularly for children who use the app. In his D.C. appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the popular app, used by more than 150 million American users monthly, is committed to ensuring user privacy and security as well as safety protocols for teenagers. He insisted, as TikTok has claimed before, that the company has never furnished U.S. user data to the Chinese Communist Party (nor has the CCP ever made such a request). Chew talked up TikTok’s “Project Texas,” intended to bring user data fully under the aegis of U.S.-based personnel and hosted on Oracle infrastructure by the end of 2023. But as Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) pointed out during the hearing, the CCP has the legal authority to compel
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Will US Ban TikTok? Move Would Benefit Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube – Variety
