WASHINGTON Reuters -- TikTok creators and three U.S. Democratic Party lawmakers on Wednesday said they oppose any ban on the Chinese-owned short video sharing app that is used by more than 150 million Americans.
On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee amid growing calls for a ban on national security concerns at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated.
The creators of Jamaal Bowman, Mark Pocan and Robert Garcia and TikTok called for a broad-based privacy legislation that would address all large social media companies at a press conference in Washington.
Why did TikTok get targeted in the hysteria and the panic? Bowman asked. Let's do the right thing here - social media reform as it relates to privacy and security. There are still more U.S. lawmakers who want TikTok banned. Critics fear that TikTok user data could be passed on to China's government. The administration of President Joe Biden has demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes in order to face a potential ban, said TikTok last week.
On Wednesday, the creators talked about posting videos of baking cakes or selling greeting cards to TikTok followers. Some people held up signs that TikTok benefits small businesses. TikTok says 5 million businesses use the app.
TikTok creator Jason Linton uses TikTok to share videos of his three adopted children in Oklahoma and has interacted with people around the world.
I am asking our politicians - don't take away the community that we've built -- a community that lasts, that loves," Linton said at the press conference.
Pocan said that a xenophobic witch hunt is motivating some in Congress to seek a TikTok ban. He said that Americans data is safe and that is what he wants to make sure.
Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, said on Wednesday that TikTok is a threat that needs to be addressed, but it is not the only surveillance threat to young people. The Big Tech forest for the TikTok trees is deliberately missing from that position. Democratic Senator Mark Warner said two additional senators backed his bipartisan legislation with Republican John Thune to give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok.
Warner said that Congress needs to give the administration the tools to review and mitigate the harms posed by foreign technology products that come from adversarial nations.