The TikTok Dilemma: Safety, Politics, and Free Speech.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew defended the platform in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, facing questions from lawmakers on user safety, data privacy, and national security. Chew asserted that banning the app would be harmful to millions of American businesses and that ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country. Following the hearing, fan edits and memes dedicated to Chew began to pop up on TikTok. Some lawmakers have called for the platform to be banned in the US over worries that its parent company, ByteDance, could or would share American user data with the Chinese government.