The chair of a US Home of Representatives panel desires TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to deal with questions subsequent week in regards to the fashionable Chinese language-owned video app‘s efforts to guard kids from inappropriate content material and potential exploitation.
Chew will probably be showing for the primary time earlier than Congress when he testifies earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee on March 23.
Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, mentioned Thursday lawmakers “must know what actions the corporate is taking to maintain our youngsters secure from on-line and offline harms.”
McMorris Rodgers and different Republicans in December wrote TikTok saying mentioned “many kids are uncovered to continuous choices of inappropriate content material that TikTok’s algorithm force-feeds to them.” Additionally they raised issues that TikTok livestreamed occasions permit grownup TikTok customers to supply financial rewards to “persuade kids to carry out sexually suggestive acts.”
TikTok, owned by Chinese language tech firm ByteDance, mentioned the Biden administration had threatened to ban the app in the USA if its Chinese language house owners didn’t promote their stakes within the firm.
“Individuals need to know the extent to which their privateness is jeopardized and their knowledge is manipulated by ByteDance-owned TikTok’s relationship with China,” she added. The U.S. authorities has raised issues that TikTok’s consumer knowledge might be handed on to China’s authorities.
TikTok, which didn’t instantly remark, mentioned earlier this month it’s creating a software that can permit mother and father to stop their teenagers from viewing content material containing sure phrases or hashtags on the short-form video app.
TikTok introduced new options to assist customers restrict the period of time spent on the app. Accounts belonging to customers underneath 18 will robotically have a time restrict of 1 hour per day, and teenagers might want to enter a passcode to proceed utilizing the app.
TikTok and the Biden administration have been negotiating for greater than two years on knowledge safety necessities. TikTok mentioned it has spent greater than $1.5 billion on rigorous knowledge safety efforts and rejects spying allegations.
The Biden administration demand for divestiture was essentially the most dramatic in a collection of latest steps by US officers and legislators.
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