On March 23, 2023 the potential banning of the popular social media app, TikTok, was discussed by the United States Congress. This came about due to growing concern of the app’s connection to the Chinese communist party. During the hearing TikTok was represented by CEO, Shou Zi Chew. Throughout the hearing, many US representatives questioned Chew on whether the data collected by TikTok on its users was accessible by the Chinese government. In China, by law, everybody must cooperate with government intelligence if requested. As a result, tech companies in China must provide the government with user data if asked. TikTok is a subsidiary of a Chinese company and supposedly the Chinese government may be able to access the user data. The hearings were supposed to see if TikTok should be allowed to operate in the United States, or if it should be banned to protect US citizens’ user data. Unfortunately, the representatives in charge of questioning Chew had varying levels of technical knowledge and as a result many made themselves look incompetent.

Several representatives attempted to question Chew on topics such as user data protection only to make a fool out of themselves by revealing how little they actually knew about data protection. One example would be Congressman Richard Hudson, who asked, “Mr. Chew, does TikTok access the home WiFi network?”. Anyone with a less than basic understanding of how computers work would know that any program that connects to the internet requires a wifi connection. Another Congressman asked if TikTok uses the phone’s camera to track pupil dilation to know if a user likes a piece of content or not. This is absurd because there are more effective ways to know if a user likes a piece of content such as a like, share, and favorite button. Several times throughout the hearing Chew would be asked a question only to be interrupted and not be given an opportunity to defend himself or the app. Watching clips of the hearing shows that the representatives involved didn’t care about having a fair discussion but rather used the opportunity to bully an individual who they see as a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party. As Chew reiterated several times throughout the hearings TikToks American data is stored in a server owned by American tech company Oracle in Austin, Texas. 

What this hearing ultimately reveals is that the people in charge in the US who want TikTok banned for privacy concerns don’t actually know what they are talking about. What is concerning about this is that these people don’t understand data privacy yet believe they should have the authority to ban an app like TikTok over data privacy concerns. Additionally, American tech companies like Facebook and Google collect just as much if not more data on their users than TikTok does. 

The concerns over data privacy on TikTok are understandable as several nations have banned the installation of the app on government employees’ phones. If the federal government banned the installation of TikTok on phones owned by government employees, it would be understandable, however, banning TikTok nationwide over privacy concerns is wrong when American tech companies are even more guilty of spying on users.