Today's congressional hearing on TikTok was supposed to probe the company's ties to China, its plans to secure U.S. user data, and its effect on kids. For this purpose, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce called in TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to testify. But it quickly became clear that lawmakers weren't at all interested in hearing what he had to say. Chew was there—as so many tech company leaders have been in recent years—as part punching bag and part prop, a body against which the dozens of participating lawmakers could hurl rants about algorithms, social media, and, in this case, communists.
During the first several hours of the TikTok hearing, lawmakers were largely split between focusing on issues of user privacy and national security and on whether TikTok is harming teenagers and other vulnerable populations. But on both fronts, Chew's interrogators seemed more intent on grandstanding than on actually learning or uncovering anything new.
