Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Thursday said TikTok CEO Shou Chew should be âdeported immediatelyâ following what the senator described as âdisgracefulâ testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
â@tiktok_us CEO Shou Chewâs disgraceful testimony today is beneath contempt. He should be deported immediately and never again allowed to re-enter our country,â Cotton declared, adding that âevery employee of TikTok in our country should be forced to register as a foreign agent, as should every one of their lobbyists, PR flaks, and lawyers.â
âThey should also hang their heads in shame after shilling for a Chinese Communist Trojan Horse,â Cotton added.
Cottonâs remark follows TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chewâs Thursday testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in which he denied the use of the term âspyingâ to describe the actions of TikTokâs parent company ByteDance.
Notably, the FBI and Department of Justice have reportedly launched investigations into ByteDance after the company âacknowledged firing four employees for using the app to track the whereabouts of two journalists in the United States,â as Breitbart News reported.
âI donât think that âspyingâ is the right way to describe it,â Chew said during the hearing.
Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) also grilled Chew on ByteDance having access to data of the millions of Americans.
âMy colleague Rep. [Bob] Latta confirmed that your parent company ByteDance currently can access user data, yes?â she asked as Chew asked her to be âmore specific.â
âSome user data is public data, congresswoman, which means everybody can search for it on the internet,â he eventually admitted as he defended the app, asserting that reports of the parent company being owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a âmisconception,â despite the fact that some of the parent companyâs top employees are members of the government. Cammack made that point during the hearing.
âThe interesting thing to me is that ByteDance, your parent company, has gone out of their way to hide and airbrush corporate structure, ties to the CCP, the companyâs founder, and their activities,â she said.
Further, Chew admitted during a line of questioning with Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) that TikTok tracks the app userâs individual keystrokes.
The hearing resulted in several lawmakers announcing their support for banning TikTok, with others across social media describing the testimony as an âabject disasterâ for TikTok.
âLetâs put it to a vote,â Sen, Josh Hawley (R-MO) said following the hearing during an appearance on Ingraham Angle. âLetâs just see what the tally is. Letâs see whoâs willing to ban this thing.â
A December Rasmussen Reports survey found most believing that China is using the app to âcollect sensitive national security information from U.S. government employeesâ and supporting federal legislation to ban the China-owned app.