US Lawmaker Needs TikTok CEO to Element Actions to Defend Children

The chair of a US Home of Representatives panel desires TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to handle 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, stated Thursday lawmakers “must know what actions the corporate is taking to maintain our youngsters protected from on-line and offline harms.”

McMorris Rodgers and different Republicans in December wrote TikTok saying stated “many kids are uncovered to continuous choices of inappropriate content material that TikTok’s algorithm force-feeds to them.” Additionally they raised considerations that TikTok livestreamed occasions enable grownup TikTok customers to supply financial rewards to “persuade kids to carry out sexually suggestive acts.”

TikTok, owned by Chinese language tech firm ByteDance, stated 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 should know the extent to which their privateness is jeopardized and their information is manipulated by ByteDance-owned TikTok’s relationship with China,” she added. The US authorities has raised considerations that TikTok’s consumer information might be handed on to China’s authorities.

TikTok, which didn’t instantly remark, stated earlier this month it’s growing a device that may enable 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 beneath 18 will mechanically 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 information safety necessities. TikTok stated it has spent greater than $1.5 billion (almost Rs. 12,400 crore) on rigorous information safety efforts and rejects spying allegations.

The Biden administration demand for divestiture was probably the most dramatic in a sequence of current steps by US officers and legislators.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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