Hi everyone! It's Shou here. I'm the CEO of TikTok.
Some politicians have started talking about banning TikTok.
Now this could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.
I'll be testifying before Congress later this week
to share all that we're doing to protect Americans using the app
and deliver on our mission to inspire creativity and to bring joy.
Let me know in the comments what you want your
elected representatives to know about what you love about TikTok.
So basically, TikTok CEO is saying, "Are you
sure you want 150 million Americans voting against you next election?"
TikTok isn't a Biden administration problem.
It started with Donald Trump, citing national security concerns.
Then, when Joe Biden took office, he actually dropped the ban,
only to come to the same conclusion today.
The only difference is that there are lesser users back then.
So, moral of the story? If you want to ban something, do it earlier.
Okay, jokes aside, is TikTok really a security threat?
Now, when it comes to national security, there are 2 main concerns.
The first one being user information collected and sent to the Chinese government,
the other is the Chinese app's algorithm influencing its users.
And what kind of data is TikTok collecting as
it runs on our phones? A heck of a lot more than you would think.
TikTok knows everything about us.
TikTok collects a ton of data.
Some people would argue that Western companies also collect user data and violate privacy.
American social companies don't have a good track record with data privacy
and user security, I mean look at Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.
Which is why they actually face charges and penalties?
But since ByteDance, the parent company is based in China,
they are not really within the jurisdiction of U.S laws.
Many of the workers who work at ByteDance are Communist Party members right?
I wouldn't know.
Although ByteDance did not publicize their ties to the Communist Party,
Mr Chew here was the former CFO of ByteDance.
So he's either a really terrible CFO or he's outright lying.
For example, the Chief Editor at ByteDance Zhang Fuping is the Communist Party Secretary, correct?
He works on the Chinese business, not on TikTok.
Do you know of any other employees that work for
ByteDance that are part of the Chinese Communist Party?
Like I said, you know, there are... ByteDance has owns Chinese businesses and they operate in China.
Only for the Chinese business, there's nothing to do with TikTok.
So Mr Chew's argument is that because TikTok is in the U.S, it is somehow not connected to ByteDance.
In your own privacy policy, it says that you may
even share information within your so-called corporate group.
Is ByteDance part of that corporate group?
If you're talking about... *beating around the bush*
Is ByteDance part of the corporate group?
ByteDance, as a holding company, is part of the corporate group, yes.
It's part of the corporate group. Okay,
so your own privacy policy says you have to share data with ByteDance.
Oh, and former TikTok employees have confirmed that TikTok is tightly controlled by ByteDance.
TikTok employees were expected to follow Chinese business hours.
So here's the next problem, China's National Intelligence Law (国家情报法)
states that "any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with the state
intelligence work and keep the secrets" of such work whether they like it or not.
So Mr Chew, if the CCP tells ByteDance to turn over all data that TikTok has
collected inside the US... do they have to do so, according to Chinese law?
Congressman, first, I'm Singaporean...
It doesn't really matter because leaked internal
audio have confirmed that China has been accessing TikTok data.
"Everything is seen in China" and one TikTok director referred to
the Beijing-based engineer as "Master Admin" who "has access to everything."
I have not seen any evidence.
Has ByteDance spied on American citizens?
I don't think that spying is the right way to describe it.
So according to Mr Chew, accessing IP address to
identify people's location is not considered spying.
TikTok has invested in Project Texas.
Our commitment is to move the data into the United States to be stored on American soil...
These data will be transferred to US servers managed by US-based company Oracle.
However, there are still backups on other data centers such as in Singapore
which is run by Alibaba, another Chinese company.
Also, there is an inherently huge difference between a
democratic government and an authoritarian one.
The Chinese government regularly disappears people they do not like.
It really doesn't matter whether you are wealthy or living overseas.
So what's stopping China from buying user data from other 3rd-party data brokers?
I really don't think U.S 3rd-party companies would be selling sensitive information.
If you're banning one entity from accessing our data, why not ban all entities?
Which is why they have also banned other Chinese companies posing a similar threat?
The second concern is regarding TikTok's algorithm.
It is no secret that China has increased the spending on foreign
influence campaigns, not just in the US, but also other countries.
And given that many Americans get their news from TikTok,
it isn't really that hard to manipulate them.
Of course, TikTok is definitely the most reliable source of information especially
when it is controlled by a foreign government that is also not democratic.
The TikTok algorithm not only helps spread Russian propaganda and fake news
but according to Mr Zhang, CCP Secretary in ByteDance,
his mission is to "Transmit the correct political direction, public opinion guidance,
and value orientation into every business and product line."
We do have our community guidelines.
One of the guidelines says material that in the sole judgment of TikTok is objectionable.
Is this an example? Banning Enes Kanter Freedom? Is that an example
of objectionable material inside the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China?
We do not... we do not take down content simply because
it's critical of China... It was banned one week after this video...
We do not... we do not do that...
Anyway, there are numerous evidence of TikTok suppressing and censoring
content critical of the Chinese government.
Are you aware of any instances of TikTok distributing content
from Chinese state media on the platform?
We will label them clearly for our users to understand that.
Clearly, Mr Chew here doesn't really know his company very well.
Over 300 TikTok employees have worked for China's state-run propaganda media,
that's just from looking at their LinkedIn profiles.
ByteDance and TikTok employees have worked for Chinese state
media AKA propaganda department and some employees are even concurrently employed.
Question is, do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?
Well, it's deeply concerning to hear about all accounts of human rights abuse. My role here
is to explain... I think you're being evasive, it's a pretty easy question.
Do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?
Congresswoman, I'm here to discuss TikTok and what we do as a platform...
I mean, if you can't answer a simple human rights question,
it really shows the moral values as a human being.
To be fair, Western platforms like YouTube aren't completely safe from propaganda and fake news,
which is why there are people in democratic countries that are pro-North Korea.
Another way to address the security concerns is to sell TikTok to an American company.
However, China opposes the sale of TikTok.
The Chinese government would make a decision regarding any sale of TikTok.
So the CCP believes they have the final say over your company.
Congressman, respectfully, in my opening statement, I said this is a private company.
If TikTok is a private business totally not connected to the Chinese government,
then why is the Chinese government so upset?
TikTok is not available in mainland China.
China literally bans TikTok and every other foreign media and app.
You see, TikTok and Douyin are essentially different apps with separate algorithms.
Content on TikTok also cannot be found on Douyin and vice versa.
This video has been up for 41 days. It is a direct threat to the chairwoman of this
committee, the people in this room... you couldn't take action after 41 days.
If you look behind me, Mr Chew, you see some of the challenges that we've seen on TikTok... as I
understand that there's a sister app in China... do they have these same things over there?
Is an app fully responsible for everything that happens to every user on the platform?
A study revealed that TikTok algorithm pushes harmful content as often as every 39 seconds.
Meanwhile, TikTok's sibling Douyin pushes positive, meaningful content to Chinese audiences.
Just take a look at these videos and you'll see a suspicious difference
between the TikTok we know versus China's version of TikTok, Douyin.
Psychological warfare isn't something new.
In 525 BC, Persian forces uses cats as psychological tactic against Egyptian forces.
Given deception is a key component of the Chinese military strategy
and "Unrestricted Warfare" (超限战) written by 2 PLA colonels described
the use of new-concept weapons to inflict psychological casualties to the enemy,
there is nothing in the world that cannot become a weapon.
In China, the way that the algorithm works it doesn't reward people doing
stupid dances and like playing with their dog.
The algorithm is rewarding things that they want to see their youth do.
So people doing cool engineering sh*t, people doing cool science sh*t.
But if you're China and you wanted to disrupt another country,
wouldn't you reward the dumbest possible sh*t on that app?
Twerking, people doing stupid dances.
You want the next level of youth to go,
"I can be famous doing something that's truly worthless to society."
So while TikTok is secretly making the whole world dumber,
harming a mental health, reducing your attention span and so on,
Douyin, on the other hand, is protecting Chinese children, making them smarter
and preparing them for war.
And honestly, it really isn't that hard to see why China is preparing for war.
...exception of maybe Vladimir Putin, you have unified Republicans and Democrats,
and if only for a day, we're actually unified...
I want to say this to all the teenagers out there and TikTok influencers who think we're just old
and out of touch and don't know what we're talking about, trying to take away your favorite app.
You may not care that your data is being accessed now, but it will be one day when you do care about it.
And here's the real problem, with data comes power, they can choose what you see and how you
see it, they can make you believe things that are not true, they can encourage you to engage
in behavior that will destroy your life, even if it is not happening yet, it could in the future...
Oh, and if you think the US it's the only country banning TikTok,
more countries ban TikTok than you think.
Anyone with a decent level of intelligence should delete TikTok immediately.
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with YouTubers sharing their opinions,
but if you are not an expert and you haven't done enough research, then maybe you shouldn't.
Because disinformation specialists rely on your lack of knowledge to
influence public opinion and manipulate politics.
So, always exercise due diligence and fight fake news with facts.