Unfortunately the Congressional hearing displays the worst of government hearings with 80% targeted at voters and 20% or less aimed at actually gathering evidence from the testifier, in this case TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

I see no way for Chew to answer the questions and concerns of the lawmakers in this format. Similarly the lawmakers know this and can go on tirades of invectives designed to justify the hearing and raising the worry about China amongst media present and voters.

Chew promotes free speech and ecumenic benefit. The House committee expresses concern about the Chinese Government obtaining copies of American peoples data and using that to interfere in elections, derive passwords or allow such data to land in hands of organised crime.

In short I see no way to win for TikTok unless America bans all companies with any type of foreign ownership. Further when Facebook were in a similar situation in front of a Congressional committee the scenario was similar.

Does that suggest the Americans want to control operations and business processes of all companies operating in the US. The implications of such hearings are far reaching and will increase costs and reduce application quality in my view.

This from CNN as a live feed so the URL may disappear or change. I captured this snippet at 13:00 on 2023-03-23

• NOW: TikTok CEO Shou Chew is testifying before Congress as scrutiny mounts over the app’s ties to China, and potential national security risks stemming from it.
• The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok from the US unless the app’s Chinese owners agree to spin off their share of the social media platform. The US and other countries have also moved to ban the app on government devices. Remember: TikTok doesn’t operate in China.
• TikTok was the top downloaded app in the US in 2021 and 2022, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. Some of the 150 million US users, who have built livelihoods and community on the app, say they can’t imagine an America without it.

And this from FT: note the reference to Project Texas run by US company Oracle, and the comments from Representative Frank Pallone,

Chew conceded that in the past, employees at Beijing-based ByteDance were subject to Chinese law that would have compelled them to co-operate with state intelligence work, but said that the Oracle partnership known as Project Texas would create a firewall, meaning that was no longer the case for TikTok staff.

Nevertheless, Chew, a former Goldman Sachs banker who opened his testimony by emphasising that he was from Singapore and had a US-born wife, faced scepticism from lawmakers over Project Texas and accusations that the company was deliberately downplaying its China links. Representative Frank Pallone, the panel’s top Democrat: said “I still believe that the Beijing communist government will still control and have the ability to influence what you’re doing. So this idea, this Project Texas, is simply not acceptable.”