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TikTok CEO Shou Chew testifies before Congress

Yahoo Finance’s Rachelle Akuffo joins the Live show from Washington, D.C., to discuss key takeaways from TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s testimony before Congress as calls for a nationwide ban rise.

Video transcript

- Now turning to our top story TikTok CEO Shou Chew is testifying today before Congress as calls grow around a potential ban of the popular social media app TikTok is just one part of an increasingly acrimonious tension between the US and China. Yahoo Finance's Rachelle Akuffo is live in Washington with the latest. You are on the floor. What is the latest, Rachelle?

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I mean, it's been a very tough morning. If I would say the overarching theme of this morning's testimony so far is that it's I don't buy it. A lot of lawmakers really questioning not just TikTok itself, but also its relationship with ByteDance. Now Chair Rogers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee really set the tone by saying that we don't trust that TikTok will ever embrace American freedoms. She then went on to lay out some of the more damaging parts of TikTok that she alleges and really also talked about this 150 million monthly active users in the US.

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Now, this was something that she really highlighted as a positive for the growth of the company on his TikTok before this testimony. But instead, she said that this actually really emphasized the urgency for Congress to. Act she also talked about the backdoor for China to access some of this user data across the platform and of course, also talked about ByteDance specifically, saying it's beholden to the CCP and targets our children.

She talked about the algorithm promoting harm to children, even brought it up as a potential what she called a portal for drug dealers to sell fentanyl. All of course, really increasing the urgency for a need for national privacy legislation. Now of course, TikTok's CEO Shou Chew had a chance to lay out his testimony regarding the commitments that he's going to be making with that app. Take a listen.

SHOU CHEW: Number one, we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers as a top priority for us. Number two, we will firewall protect US data from unwanted foreign access. Number three, TikTok will remain a place for free expression and will not be manipulated by any government. And fourth, we will be transparent and we will give access to third party independent monitors to remain accountable for our commitments.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Now you have to remember when this hearing first started, Chair Rogers said that TikTok would essentially say anything and is now trying to make these commitments at the 11th hour. Now Shou Chew did try and compare TikTok to some of these other social media companies that perhaps have the same issues as well. But lawmakers still kept honing in on TikTok, saying what about your specific commitments, how can we believe you, and how can we believe you about your relationship between the CCP and US data ending up overseas.

Something else, that there was an exchange between a representative Pallone. He said, would TikTok commit to not sell data to anyone? And at one point, Shou Chew sort of try to narrow the focus and talked about data brokers. He said, no. Would they not sell it to anyone? He said, I will get back to you. Also when it came to targeted marketing, he said, I'll get back to you on that.

Another issue, would they commit to not gathering or dealing with location or health data without affirmative consumer consent? Obviously, a lot of people wondering what happens to their data, should they be allowed to opt out of it, are they really aware of what they're signing up for. And something else that we heard mentioned a few times is section 230. Now that refers to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Now that covers unclear and inconsistent moderation practices that limit speech and go beyond the text of the existing statute and also addresses the proliferation of illicit and harmful content online.

So they were-- lawmakers were asking you should TikTok have these protections and really talked about the reforms that are needed to really cover some of the potential risks that they do see with TikTok, Darren.

- Thank you for that, Rachelle. And we're going to be dipping in and talking to you throughout the day here.