E&C Democrats Request Answers to Unanswered Questions Following Hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Chew

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) wrote to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew today requesting written responses to a compiled list of Committee Democrats' unanswered questions from last month's hearing with the company's leader.

"At the March 23, 2023, hearing, Committee Democrats raised serious concerns about TikTok's effects on user privacy, national security, and the health and safety of our children," Pallone wrote to Chew. "We were hoping that you could allay some of our concerns at the hearing, but unfortunately many of our questions remain unanswered."

In the letter and during last month's hearing, Pallone reiterated his concern that social media platforms have been collecting, using, sharing, and selling their data without meaningful limits, especially TikTok, which has allowed advertisers to specifically target users, including teenagers.

"Across the industry, platforms have leveraged this highly unregulated market to aggregate troves of data on hundreds of millions of citizens, which can be used for targeted advertising or sold to third parties who exploit that data for their own commercial interests," Pallone continued. "These industry-wide concerns are heightened when it comes to TikTok given your Beijing, China-based parent company and its susceptibility to the Chinese Communist Party's influence."

The letter, which can be read in full HERE, requests responses to Committee Democrats' questions that went unanswered during the hearing last month, including:

• What is TikTok's projected revenue for 2023, and how much of it would be generated through targeted advertisements?
• What is the infrastructure in place at TikTok to moderate and take down health misinformation content?
• Does TikTok maintain records of changes to its algorithms?
• Has TikTok ever used precision Global Positioning System information from U.S. users?
• Will TikTok commit to not selling American user data to third parties, including parent companies?
• Will TikTok commit to ending targeted marketing to users under the age of 18?
• What is the breakdown of the $1.5 billion of expenses TikTok has invested in Project Texas?
• Will TikTok commit to expanding access for researchers to investigate how the algorithm is pushing content to users?
• Does TikTok have a strategy for addressing Spanish-language content that violates its trust and safety guidelines?

Last year, the Energy and Commerce Committee overwhelmingly passed the American Data Privacy and Protection Act with broad bipartisan support. The bill would establish a national data-privacy standard that puts people back in control of their data, establishes robust privacy protections for our children, and requires Big Tech and other companies to minimize the amount of American's personal information that they collect, process, and transfer.

###