Republican Congressman asks TikTok CEO if the app ‘accesses the home Wi-Fi network’

Boomer Republican Congressmen have been roasted for asking a series of ridiculous questions during a grilling of TikTok’s CEO.

TikTok’s chief executive was finally grilled by US politicians on Thursday.

The Chinese-owned app is facing a potential ban — but a series of ridiculous questions by clueless representatives has sparked mockery online.

Shou Zi Chew faced a tense, hours-long interrogation in front of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, amid growing bipartisan support to ban the hugely popular video sharing app over harmful content and national security risks.

While Mr Chew was forced to respond to serious allegations that TikTok was a used as a spying tool by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), many observers were stunned at the technological illiteracy displayed by number of the questioners.

“Mr Chew, does TikTok access the home Wi-Fi network?” Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, asked in one bizarre exchange.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) asks TikTok CEO Shou Chew: "Does TikTok access the home WiFi network?" https://t.co/Fmv8MED8z0pic.twitter.com/xwrYuSn3jE

— Bloomberg (@business) March 23, 2023

“Only if the user turns on the Wi-Fi … I’m sorry, I may not understand the question,” Mr Chew replied.

“So if I have the TikTok app on my phone and my phone is on my home Wi-Fi network, does TikTok access that network?” Mr Hudson pressed.

“It would have to — to access the network to get connection to the internet, if that’s the question,” Mr Chew said, still appearing confused.

It was only then that Mr Hudson asked what appeared to have been the intended, underlying question. “Is it possible then that it could access other devices on that home Wi-Fi network?” he said.

Mr Chew replied that TikTok did “not do anything that is beyond any industry norms”.

“I believe the answer to your question is no, it could be technical — let me get back to you,” he said.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Picture: Olivier Douliery/AFP

Georgia Republican Buddy Carter also attracted scorn for a strange line of questioning about “pupil dilation”.

“Can you tell me right now, can you say with 100 per cent certainty, that TikTok does not use the phone’s camera to determine whether the content that elicits a pupil dilation should be amplified by the algorithm? Can you tell me that?” Mr Carter demanded.

“We do not collect body, face or voice data to identify our users — we do not,” Mr Chew replied.

“The only face data that we collect is when you use the filters that have say, sunglasses on your face, we need to know where your eyes are.”

Mr Carter asked incredulously, “Why do you need to know where their eyes are if you’re not seeing if they’re dilated?”

This entire hearing was a joke… pic.twitter.com/aR1xZxxVRx

— D Piddy (@Blackkout__) March 23, 2023

“The data is stored on your local device and deleted after use. Again, we do not collect body, face or voice data to identify our users,” Mr Chew said.

Mr Carter replied, “I find that hard to believe, it’s our understanding that they’re looking at the eyes … how do you determine what age they are then?”

Tech website Futurism described the scenes as at times “hard to watch”.

“Of course, considering Congress’s long history of putting on angry faces to ask tech CEOs questions that make absolutely no sense, none of this was, sadly, all that surprising to see,” the website wrote.

“Mark Zuckerberg, for example, was once asked on the Congress floor to give advice on fixing broken VCRs that might be stuck ‘flashing 12.00’, among other hard-hitting questions.”

Georgia Republican Buddy Carter. Picture: Olivier Douliery/AFP

TikTok ‘destroyed lives’

The tense hearing was not short of serious moments.

During one of the most emotional outbursts, Florida Republican Gus Bilirakis confronted Mr Chew about the suicide of 16-year-old Chase Nasca, who died last year after allegedly being exposed to TikTok videos promoting suicide.

Chase’s parents, who have filed a wrongful-death suit against TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, were seen in tears as Mr Bilirakis played similar videos for attendees during the hearing.

“Mr Chew, your company destroyed their lives,” Mr Bilirakis railed.

Mr Chew described Chase’s death as “devastating” and “tragic”.

“We do take these issues very seriously and we do provide resources for anybody that types in anything suicide-related,” Mr Chew said.

In another tense exchange, Florida Republican Kat Cammack played a TikTok video showing a gun firing with the caption “Me asf at the House Energy and Commerce Committee on 03/23/2023”.

Committee chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, was tagged in the video.

The tense hearing lasted five hours. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

Ms Cammack alleged the video was published before the hearing was publicly announced and that it has been online for 41 days without action from TikTok.

“It is a direct threat to the chairwoman of this committee, the people in this room, and yet it still remains on the platform,” Ms Cammack said.

“You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintain[ing] the data security of 150 million Americans when you can’t even protect the people in this room?”

Mr Chew asked to respond to the video but was cut off by the chairwoman.

The closely watched appearance comes as lawmakers from both parties push for a nationwide ban on TikTok due to national security concerns. Critics have alleged that China can use the platform to snoop on the more than 150 million users in the US.

“I have seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data,” Mr Chew said. “They have never asked us, we have not provided. I have seen no evidence of this happening.”

Asked by Florda Republican Neal Dunn if ByteDance had spied on American citizens, Mr Chew replied, “I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it.”

Members of the House committee. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

‘Should be banned’

Earlier in the day, China said it would “firmly oppose” calls for ByteDance to divest its ownership stake in TikTok or be banned in the US — a declaration that raised fresh concern about Beijing’s role in the company.

The packed hearing began with scathing remarks from Ms McMorris Rodgers, who immediately expressed her support for a TikTok ban while blasting the platform’s ties to the CCP.

“We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values,” Ms McMorris Rodgers said.

“TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.”

.@DrNealDunnFL2: "Has ByteDance spied on American citizens?"

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew: "I don't think that spying is the right way to describe it." pic.twitter.com/23nvsd7bEG

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 23, 2023

The chairwoman also alleged that TikTok has “repeatedly been caught in the lie that it does not answer to the CCP through ByteDance”.

Mr Chew, who waffled between defiance and contrition in his first appearance on Capitol Hill, said he takes the US government’s concerns about national security “very, very seriously” and was committed to keeping the platform’s content “free from any manipulation from any government”.

The TikTok CEO touted his company’s $US1.5 billion effort to protect and store US user data on American soil through a partnership with Oracle — an initiative known internally as “Project Texas”.

TikTok is willing to offer “third-party monitoring of our source code” to reassure lawmakers, Mr Chew added.

TikTok is facing a ban in the US. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

“There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform and we know we have a responsibility to protect them,” Mr Chew said.

Mr Chew irritated lawmakers from both parties with evasive responses to some questions — often declining to answer “yes or no” queries or telling lawmakers he would need to follow up with a written response after the hearing.

Mr Chew’s assurances about US data protection practices failed to convince lawmakers.

The committee’s ranking member, New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone, was among those who argued that TikTok’s partnership with Oracle was not a real solution to privacy concerns.

“I still believe that the Beijing Communist government will still control and have the ability to influence what you do,” Mr Pallone said. “This idea, this ‘Project Texas’ is simply not acceptable.”

Officials from the US Committee on Foreign Investment — an interagency task force that assesses potential national security risks in business deals — recently issued a demand that ByteDance executives sell their stakes in TikTok or face a ban.

Mr Chew and other TikTok officials have argued that divestment is not a solution to questions about potential national security risks.

The Department of Justice is also currently investigating claims the company spied on several US tech journalists.

Former President Donald Trump pursued a ban on TikTok in 2020, but the effort was eventually struck down in federal court.

AOC says TikTok should stay. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

AOC defends TikTok

On Saturday, social media-loving socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was ripped after she argued against banning TikTok.

“Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No,” the New York Democrat said in her first-ever video on the controversial app, posted early Saturday.

“The United States has never before banned a social media company from existence, from operating in our borders, and this is an app that has over 150 million Americans on it.”

AOC insisted that banning TikTok “doesn’t really address the core of the issues” and instead shifted the concern to US legislation.

Rep @AOC posts her first TikTok and it’s about the possible TikTok ban.

1. She says Congress needs a classified briefing on the national security risks.

2. US needs strict data privacy laws like Europe.

3. Shouldn’t ban an app 150 million Americans use w/o making case to them. pic.twitter.com/lXesA4S5GC

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) March 25, 2023

“Major social media companies are allowed to collect troves of deeply personal data about you that you don’t know about without any really significant regulation whatsoever,” she said.

“The United States is one of the only developed nations in the world that has no significant data or privacy protection laws on the books.”

Hitting back at the curious argument, a senior member of New York’s congressional delegation quipped to the NY Post, “AOC clearly stands for ‘Ambassador of China’.”

Meanwhile, the Queens/Bronx Congresswoman also watered down the alleged national security risks TikTok presents by arguing that if they were so serious, Congress would have received a classified briefing on them — which they have not.

“It just doesn’t feel right to me,” the 33-year-old lawmaker said.

TikTok is already banned on federal government devices, with New York currently considering whether to follow the same example for state government-issued electronics. It is also not allowed in China.