Editor’s note for March 23, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
My thoughts today:
“The facts show that ByteDance is beholden to the CCP, and TikTok and ByteDance are one and the same,” said Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican congresswoman from Washington State.
She is the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which today lent its bipartisanly hostile ears to more than four hours of testimony (video) from TikTok CEO Shou Chew (周受资 Zhōu Shòuzī).
Rodgers also said that “TikTok also targets our children,” and in response to Chew’s arguments that the service is safe, “We aren’t buying it.”
While some of Chew’s interrogators voiced valid concerns about TikTok, it was also clear that many of them do not understand how the internet works, or what their teenage children are thinking.
TikTok users should perhaps start making other plans.
