TikTok recently received international attention as its CEO was questioned on Capitol Hill. A U.S. Congress member revealed that TikTok retains the censorship code for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, that can be switched to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censorship mode and access U.S. data.
On March 23, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on TikTok and questioned the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) (R) looks on during a House Budget Committee markup of the Republican health care bill on Capitol Hill on March 16, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) raised the concern that “Incredibly specific censorship parameters from Douyin are present in TikTok, but just turned off,” citing the report by Toronto-based Citizen Labs as saying, ByteDance developed two versions of the short-video app: Douyin in China and TikTok in the United States and other countries….