The TikTok CEO’s Face-Off With Congress Is Doomed
WiredTikTok is the hottest app on the planet—and the most-hated tech in Washington, DC. That disconnect has consumed the narrative around the app since CEO Shou Zi Chew took the helm of TikTok roughly two years ago. “It’s gotten a lot more attention, so there’s just more awareness of the problem,” says Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the new House Select Committee on China. Nor have Chew’s private meetings with Washington lawmakers dissuaded them from pursuing a nationwide TikTok ban. “But I remain fundamentally concerned that TikTok, as a Chinese-owned company, is subject to dictates from the Chinese Communist Party and poses an unacceptable risk to US national security.” The good news for TikTok is that Bennet didn’t call to “blow up” the app, as Flordia Republican congressman Matt Gaetz did.