House Speaker Kevin McCarthytold CNNthat he would support legislation that would ban the app.
But lawmakers today pressed him on what the status is of data being collected now.
I am asking you today.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on ThursdayGetty Images
Who has access to TikToks user data?
But no major data privacy bill has cleared Congress.
And yet it still remains on the platform.
I think that is a blatant display of how vulnerable people who use TikTok are.
Chew asked to respond, but McMorris Rodgers moved on to the next lawmaker.
Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) later noted that TikTok took down the video during the hearing.
I was briefed during the break that they are taken down, Chew said.
It goes to show the enormous challenge that we have, he said.
Another member raised concerns about TikTok user videos that promote suicide.
Your technology is literally leading to death, Bilirakis said.
Chew also was asked if TikTok would be willing to divest from ByteDance.
I dont think ownership is the issue here.
I mean, look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, just one example.
TikTok is already banned for employees of U.S. government agencies.
The Biden administration last week insisted that TikTok parent ByteDance divest the platform or face a ban.
Courts denied preliminary injunctions to ban the app and the effort fizzled, but concern remains high.
We have designed Project Texas to protect U.S. users interests, Chew said.
Meanwhile, Chew acknowledged that unless and until Project Texas is implemented, the data is currently not secure.
How can you promise that that will move into the United States and be protected here?
Chew responded, I have seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data.
They have never asked us.
We have not provided.
Eshoo replied, I find that actually preposterous.
TikTok a private company so that is not public information.
Chew outlined measures the company has taken to protect teenagers on the platform from time limits to parental controls.
But he repeatedly noted that these are issues involving the entire social media ecosystem.
That provision of the decades-old Communications Decency Act gives internet companies legal immunity from most content on their sites.
Today, U.S. TikTok data is stored by default in Oracle servers.
But it was clear early on in the hearing that lawmakers found those measures insufficient.
McMorris Rodgers challenged Chews assertion that TikTok parent ByteDance is not under the control of the Chinese Communist party.
TikTok spokespeople also say that ByteDance has no single global headquarters.
