The background to the hearing is the recent discussion about the security risks linked to the social media platform and its Chinese parent company Bytedance. In February, the U.S. decided to restrict the use of Tiktok for government employees, at the same time a discussion began about banning the app at the national level.
However, Tiktok's CEO, Shou Chew, hits back at the accusations as "misconceptions". In his speech, he addressed Tiktok's ongoing work to protect the health of young people as well as the importance of the app remaining free from the influence of state actors.
" As I see it, many risks that are pointed out are hypothetical or theoretical. I haven't seen any evidence," Chew said.
"A weapon"
However, the opening did little to satisfy members. For over five hours, the CEO had to answer questions about everything from deaths linked to dangerous "challenges" spread on the app to Forbes magazine's revelation that Bytedance had used Tiktok to monitor journalists.
Great focus was also on the transparency Chinese actors have of the user data that Tiktok collects. Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers went so far as to call the app "a weapon used by the Communist Party to spy."
The claim was refuted by Chew, who believes that the ongoing "Texas" project will protect U.S. user data from transparency by moving it to servers in the United States. The idea is that all data in the long run should be handled by an American company with only American staff.
Tiktok: They didn't want to listen
Following the hearing, the company has sharply criticized members of Congress, who it says were not amenable to Tiktok's arguments.
"Shou came prepared to answer questions. Unfortunately, the day was dominated by political play for the gallery that failed to see the actual solutions already in the works," Tiktok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter wrote to CNN.