After TikTok CEO’s Congressional Testimony, Brands Should Question Their Platform Presence

Unanswered questions, ambiguity and elusiveness by TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew were on display before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23. Chew was called before the Committee to testify as members of Congress leveled accusations of inadequate moderation, censorship of content made by minority groups in the US, and data security.

Social media juggernaut TikTok has been lauded for its powerful algorithm to drive its rapid growth. Over 150 million American users and 5 million brands, advertisers and media companies use the platform on a daily basis, but that popularity comes at a cost: Anti-social challenges, racism, sometimes fatal misinformation,  and violent content continue to go viral. The platform demonstrates its ability to continue to drive user and engagement growth with its content filtering and promoting algorithm—at the expense of the mental health of its users.

It’s time for brands, advertisers and media companies to take a real look at how they have supported TikTok’s growth and pervasiveness while pausing their paid marketing on TikTok.

TikTok’s algorithm is a black box, as is its moderation. The question of how and why dangerous material circulates so broadly on the platform is the key question that may determine the platform’s future, yet Chew’s answer felt like nothing more than an empty platitude: “This is a challenge for our industry,” he said. 

Congresswoman Kat Cammack struck at the heart of the matter by showing a TikTok post video promoting gun violence towards the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The post had been live on TikTok for over 40 days, racking up millions of views. 

"You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintaining the data security—privacy and security—of 150 million Americans, where you can't even protect the people in this room?” Cammack asked Chew. 

The video was subsequently removed by TikTok during the hearing only after being highlighted in the hearing.

While violent content is allowed to flourish and go viral on TikTok, content that focuses on elevating minority voices languishes even when it is allowed to remain on the platform. According to Representative Yvette D. Clarke from New York, Black Lives Matter content has historically been flagged and taken down as inappropriate content. Spanish language content moderation doesn’t even exist in the US, Representative Cardenas added, making Spanish-speaking audiences more vulnerable to misinformation.

You might be interested to know that none of these dangerous viral challenges and violent videos are available on Douyin (formerly ByteDance), TikTok’s sister company based in China. The company clearly has the ability to moderate with a far heavier hand. TikTok’s executives are  simply addicted to the growth and engagement that dangerous content brings to their platform.

Geopolitics come into play here, too. TikTok’s operations are closely intertwined with the Chinese government. Earlier on the 23rd, Shu Jueting of the Chinese ministry told reporters at a briefing that forcing the sale of TikTok’s US operations would “seriously undermine the confidence of investors from all countries including China to invest in the US.” Any TikTok sale or spinoff would amount to a technology export and would have to adhere to Chinese law and administrative approvals, Shu added. “The Chinese government will make decisions according to the law.”

In a truly damning moment, Chew was asked whether parent company ByteDance has spied on Americans at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. “I don’t think ‘spying’ is the right way to describe it,” Chew responded. Later on in the proceedings, Chew circle back to read a statement given to him by counsel which denied the spying.

TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., which US lawmakers have argued cannot be trusted with the personal data of American users. In his testimony before the House committee, Chew openly admitted that “Chinese engineers do have access to global data.” These engineers are based in China.

Still, Chew would not answer the simple question, “Is ByteDance a Chinese company?” When pressed by Representative Tony Cardenas from California, Chew chose to equivocate with an “it depends” kind of answer.

“I don’t know if I should say this in public,” Chew said at one point. Ironically, that may have been the most truthful thing he said all morning. Chew was well coached to dance around the actual issues, to be as opaque as possible.  That opacity is the heart of the problem with TikTok. Companies need to hit pause until that opacity turns clear.