OPINION

An Asian and An Entire Congress Walk into a Bar

The US Congress grilling TikTok CEO weakens the global view about how America understands the world

I’m trying. I swear to god, I really am trying. The whole world is trying.

A few nights ago I watched the US Congress grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Legislators claim that the Chinese-based app poses a national security threat to the US where it has over 150 million users. Chew was there to defend that no, the platform does not have ties to the government in Beijing, and no, it is not intentionally cultivating harmful content.

Unlike Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg defense that looked like an episode of Black Mirror, Chew was well-prepared, eloquent and confident. He spoke like he really was the CEO of TikTok and was in charge of his ship. He also exuded humility and demonstrated an attitude that he came to be of help, not add fuel to the existing accusations.

Repeatedly, he answered clearly, no, TikTok is not in bed with the Communist Chinese People. Yes, they’re trying their best to ensure harmful info is censored. No, they are not selling TikTok data. Yes, they are not perfect. Yes, they are willing to be open and transparent with the US government. No, neither China nor President Xi is the puppet master of TikTok.

Yet the questions asked were ridiculous and disappointing. Some were shocking and there were times I was unsure if the whole session was a satire. Clearly it wasn’t, but the level of ignorance shocked me above acceptable.

For the longest time, America is seen as a great nation. So great that when America kept interfering with other countries, we thought, well, they probably know what they’re doing. When they meddled with foreign political landscapes and criticized developing nations, we folks in Southeast Asia — where Chew is from — let them because, well, we have other things to focus on like feeding our people, enforcing harsh death sentences on drug trafficking, and beefing up our education and infrastructure. To quote Russian leader Vladimir Putin in his interview with Oliver Stone, “we all have our own problems to worry about other than to meddle with other nation’s business without fully understanding its culture, religion and traditions.”

As an Asian with over four decades living on this planet watching enough global shit shows, I will tell you this, I’ve little confidence left with America. Not after the US Congress grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew the way they did.

I tried so hard to bite my tongue watching the hearing. Partly because I couldn’t believe what I witnessed. Thus, I also read the transcript. It left me with so many questions about the integrity and collective intelligence of the leaders of a super nation.

The hearing was like the gift that kept on giving — from the rear end. At times so cringe-worthy. Die hard patriots may want to disagree, but this interrogation had nothing to do with their beloved presidents or the upcoming elections.

It’s the state of their knowledge about how the world operates out there and the pre-set judgments representative leaders have about addressing a situation that affects the global population. Consider this a post mortem, if you will. But please, for the love of god, remove the ancient, prejudiced, colonial goggles beforehand.

Watching the hearing (and reading the transcript made available online) it felt like the committee had in mind (and was following) a Hollywood movie plot. The representatives were hell-bent on cornering Chew about TikTok being an accomplice with China, “selling data” to any willing buyer for the right price, and being ever-so-keen to infiltrate the American cloud space. Perhaps, a good idea would be to knock down this delusion that the world is out to get America. The other parts of the world are becoming their own superpowers.

So much of the hearing felt hypocritical. Here are highlights from the hearing. *Bear in mind the transcripts may present grammatical errors here and there as per recorded and transcribed.

Representative Anna Eshoo (Democrat for CA) minced the following: “I think that there is a real problem, a real problem relative to our national security about the protection of the user data. I don’t believe that TikTok has sent or done anything to convince us that information, the personal information of 150 million Americans, that the Chinese government is not going to give that up. So, can you tell me who writes the algorithms for TikTok?”

Thankfully, Chew was ready to serve:

“Today? The algorithm that powers the US user experience is running in the Oracle cloud infrastructure. You know, initially there were parts of the source code, especially in the infrastructure layer that doesn’t touch the user experience. Now, that’s a collaborative global effort, including built by engineers in China, just like many other companies. By the way, the phone you use, the car you drive is a global collaborative effort now, but today, the business sites and the main parts of the code for TikTok is written by TikTok employees. And congresswoman, what we are offering is third party monitoring of our source code. I am not aware of any company, American companies or otherwise, that has actually done that. We, because we are saying “we” wanna give you transparency and rely on third parties to make sure that we get all the comfort that we need about the experience.”

Zuckerberg could learn a thing or two about explaining like a CEO from Chew’s lead. The very same questions addressed to Chew could be served to Zuckerberg regarding Facebook.

As much as people tend to point fingers at TikTok for being an app from China, unknown to many, TikTok is a company that’s headquartered in Singapore and Los Angeles. TikTok is the subsidiary of ByteDance, a company founded by Chinese, not China, the country.

Being a former COO and having sat on hot seats, I noticed the questions were often thoughtless, insensitive, and the questioning at times became desperate.

Representative Diana DeGette (Democrat for CO) spewed the following which made me think perhaps she was asking for the sake of asking, because the question ma’am, is utter nonsense:

“So how can you make yourself more perfect? I don’t want you to say it’s not there, or you apologize. What can you do to limit it as much as possible, more than what you’re doing now?”

I would contend and say the same questions should be directed to the leaders about how they’re governing and looking after the American public regarding the homeless and opioid crisis. What are the solutions to improve health care infrastructure and addiction treatment access for heavily affected communities, and implement harm reduction strategies? Can the elected leaders make themselves “more perfect” about eradicating these social ills and rehabilitating its affected citizens? Even as an outsider, it pains me to watch videos and read reports as the situation worsens.

But that’s none of my damn business.

Representative Richard Hudson (Republican for NC) had this to say which I kept thinking, perhaps he was being …satirical? Obviously, he wasn’t.

Hudson: TikTok, Apple, my phone, is on my home Wi-Fi network, does TikTok access that network?

Chew: It will have to access that network to get connections to the internet. If that’s the question.

Hudson: Is it possible then that it could access other devices on that home Wi-Fi network?

Chew: Congressman, that we do not do anything that is beyond any industry norms? I believe the answer to your question is no. It could be technical. Let me get back to you.

Hudson: Okay. I’d appreciate it if you can answer that. I’d like to change directions real quick. Do you receive personal employment, salary, compensation, or benefits from ByteDance? *ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok

Chew: Yes, I do.

Hudson: What is your salary from ByteDance?

Chew: Congressman, if you don’t mind. I would prefer to keep my compensation private.

At this point, I’m not sure if this hearing had gone off tangent, but some of the questions are irrelevant based on the primary concern. Reminds me of what my former bosses used to tell me at executive bootcamp, Just because you’re given a microphone and an opportunity to speak, doesn’t mean that’s an offer you need to take if you don’t have anything concrete to contribute.

Representative Tony Cárdenas (Democrat for CA) raised a contention with language and violence which, again, is myopic at best:

“Many, many languages are used and spoken. For example, TikTok in the United States is being used in many languages, specifically when it comes to Spanish language. Are you dedicating more resources today than you did months ago, years ago, on making sure that you are combing through that content to make sure that if content is dangerous or damaging or deadly, that you are bringing it down as quickly as possible?”

Chew swiftly replied, “Yes, we are investing in more Spanish language content moderation, and yes, we will, once we identify. The violative content, we’ll take it down as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile I’m thinking, Congressman, have you listened to the lyrics that’s coming out of mainstream American music? Where do I even begin?

Republican Representative Kat Cammack played a TikTok video that showed a gun firing with a threatening message about the ongoing committee hearing that’s been on the app since Feb 10. Cammack went on to say in cold hard seriousness, “You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintaining the data privacy and security of 150 million Americans when you can’t even protect the people in this room?”

My tandem thought was, well Congresswoman Cammack, can you and your government maintain safety in your own classrooms, malls, and open air concert venues?

Madam Chair of the hearing, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, made me choke on my gluten-free bread when she said the following about TikTok:

“It’s also a portal for drug dealers to sell illicit fentanyl that China has banned yet is helping Mexican cartels produce, send across our border and poison our children in China. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) proactively prohibits this type of TikTok content that promotes death and despair to kids from the data it collects to the content it controls. TikTok is a grave threat of foreign influence in American life.”

With raised eyebrows I’m thinking, “Ma’am, about that, I think you should be doing an internal investigation starting with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma. America’s threat to its drug crisis seems to be coming from within the country.”

But that’s none of my damn business.

My cognitive cells were severely tested when Representative Debbie Lesko (Republican for AZ) took her chance to speak:

Lesko: My question is, do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?

Chew: Well, it’s deeply concerning to hear about all the accounts of human rights abuse. My role here is to explain what our platform does on this.

Lesko: I think it’s a pretty easy question. Do you agree that the Chinese government has persecuted the Uyghur population?

Chew: Congressman, I’m here to describe TikTok and what we do as a platform and as a platform we allow our users to freely express on this issue earlier.

“It’s a pretty easy question…” Ma’am, that’s not even the way you should think.

The obsession with the Chinese Communist Party is palpable. The representatives seem relentless with their ridiculous insinuations:

Representative Kelly Armstrong (Republican for ND): So do you, as far as a voting block of shares zoned in ByteDance, do you know if the Chinese Communist Party now, Chinese government Communist party officials, the Chinese Communist Party, do you know what their percentage of the actual voting block share of ByteDance is?

Chew: The Communist Party doesn’t have voting rights in ByteDance.

Like, seriously, Congresswoman?

It gets better. No, I’m being sarcastic, of course.

Representative Troy Balderson (Republican for OH) had this to add to the hearing:

“Okay, the fact of the matter here is that despite whatever action you take that TikTok is taking to protect teens, your algorithm continues to promote harmful content. Wouldn’t you agree that indicates there is something inherently wrong with the algorithm your platform employs?”

Chew demonstrated what leaders of an emerging economy stands for by being succinct and on the ball:

“I do respectfully disagree with that. The algorithm drives a great user experience for many, many users. Well, I talked about STEM content that has 116 billion views on our platform. I want one more example. BookTok is a trend that happened on our platform to encourage people to read. And globally it has 115 billion views and it’s fantastic. I’ve heard people telling me that they’re reading more because of BookTok. So there is a lot of good and joy and positivity that can be derived from the TikTok experience. Yes, there’s some bad actors who come in and post violative content and it’s our job to remove them. But the overwhelming experience is a very positive one for our community.”

As in any show, you’ll have the comic relief. Again, I am being sarcastic here.

Representative August Pfluger (Republican for TX) made me facepalm:

Pfluger: Does TikTok support genocide?

Chew: Again, Congressman, I’m here to talk about TikTok.

Pfluger: Does Tiktok support genocide.

Chew: No.

Was that even necessary, Congressman?

Representative John Joyce (Republican for PA) was at least as transparent as possible about how he feels in regards to the whole inquisition via a monologue. I’ll give him credit for that:

“Based on what we’ve heard today, it’s clear to me that TikTok as a company cannot be trusted and that Americans remain significantly at risk because of the TikTok app. I still contend that TikTok is the spy in Americans’ pockets. I want to acknowledge that TikTok does have the ability to make those changes, but unfortunately, we have not heard that from you today. We have not heard a commitment to be able to protect the personal privacy that Americans expect and that Americans deserve. Thank you, Madame Chair, and I yield a remainder of my time.”

I could go on but some things are best experienced first hand. I will leave you with an icing on the cake. After all that’s been said and done, the ignoramus disease boiled down to this by Representative Dan Crenshaw (Republican for TX):

“So here’s the main point of concern. China’s 2017 national intelligence law states very clearly that I quote, any organization or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence, work in accordance with the law and maintain the secrecy of all knowledge of state intelligence work. In other words, ByteDance and also your TikTok employees that live in China, they must cooperate with Chinese intelligence whenever they are called upon. And if they are called upon, they’re bound to secrecy. That would include you. So Mr. Chew, if the CCP tells ByteDance to turn over all data that TikTok is collected inside the US even within Project Texas, do they have to do so according to the Chinese law.

Chew: Congressman, first, I’m Singaporean.

You can read the full transcript here.