Video-sharing app TikTok has a public image problem, and the U.S. government has an internet literacy problem. Together, it makes for an impressive spectacle.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee spent five hours on Thursday hounding TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew with questions about potentially harmful algorithms and data privacy. For his part, Chew seemed to only compound the firm’s reputation issues by debating the semantics of the word “spying” in reference to reports that TikTok tracked American journalists’ precise location. Members of Congress, infamously known for their limited understanding of the inner workings of the internet, also had the chance to blunder their talking points too.
