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Just as TikTok looked as though it had weathered the storm following a murky congressional hearing, a group of Republicans are demanding that the Department of Justice investigate its CEO for allegedly lying to Congress.
Thirteen House Republicans, led by Representative Tim Walberg, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, in a letter obtained by The Spectator, demanding that the DoJ look into what they claim are critical lies told to Congress by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, while he was testifying under oath.
“It is imperative that we hold Chew and TikTok accountable for his false statements regarding crucial facts of the company’s operations,” the Republicans wrote. The signatories are all members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which grilled Chew earlier this year. “We request that your department conduct a thorough investigation into whether Chew committed perjury by falsely asserting that TikTok did not store Americans’ data in China.”
At issue is Chew’s claim that American data is not stored in China, nor is it accessible to employees of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore in the past, and access of this is on an as-required basis by our engineers globally,” Chew promised.
But bombshell reporting from Forbes last week suggests that Chew outright lied to Congress. “Highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China,” Alexandra S. Levine wrote for the magazine. The lawmakers call this “compelling evidence” that Chew lied under oath.
During Chew’s much-anticipated hearing in front of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, the chairwoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, repeatedly reminded Chew that “making false or misleading statements to Congress is a federal crime,” which Chew said he understood.
Chew’s lies aren’t even the first time that a TikTok executive has lied to Congress. Walberg and his counterparts also note that “In October 2021, TikTok head of public policy Michael Beckerman testified under oath to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that a ‘world-renowned, US-based security team’ decides who gets access to American data.”
However, “a June 2022 report detailing the recordings of at least eight TikTok employees revealed that in fact, US employees often had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how American user data was flowing, and China-based employees of ByteDance had repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users.”
While both Republicans and Democrats on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee pressed Chew for answers, some Democrats have recently fallen in lockstep behind the CCP-tied app. Though Republicans are mostly opposed to the app, they are divided on support for an outright ban.
“On the surface, this shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Representative Walberg told The Spectator. “This is a national security and privacy issue, and TikTok has established a firm pattern of dishonesty and willingness to cover up for the CCP, now extending to inaccurate testimony before Congress.”
Walberg has been leading his Republican colleagues on pressing the Biden administration for answers on TikTok. In April, he wrote to the Biden administration demanding answers about potential ties that senior White House aide Anita Dunn has to her former company, which both represents TikTok and has met multiple times with White House officials.
“Unfortunately, we have not received answers from the White House regarding these connections yet, but it is my hope that all Americans, including those in the White House fully comprehend the threat TikTok and the CCP pose, and we soon receive answers that will alleviate our concerns,” Walberg said. “In the meantime, we will redouble efforts to force TikTok and ByteDance to provide honest and transparent answers whether under oath or otherwise.”
One of Chew’s failsafes that he repeatedly fell back on during his testimony was Project Texas, TikTok’s plans to house data in American databases. Representative August Pfluger told Chew during the hearing that the project’s name offends him as a Texas congressman. “Please rename your project,” the Texas Republican said. “Texas is not the appropriate name. We stand for freedom and transparency and we don’t want your project.”
“The CEO of TikTok’s lies to me and other members of Congress while under oath will not be tolerated,” Pfluger told The Spectator. “We are demanding accountability for TikTok’s reckless treatment of the personal information of Americans.”
The letter from Walberg, Pfluger, and others is the latest instance of intense congressional scrutiny of TikTok and its leadership. Senator Tom Cotton, a longtime China hawk, demanded Chew “be deported immediately and never again allowed to re-enter our country” following his “disgraceful testimony.”
Cotton’s fellow China hawk, Senator Marco Rubio, has also written to Garland demanding that the DoJ investigate Chew for lying to Congress. Outside of Washington, DC, Montana governor Greg Gianforte is pushing for a full statewide ban, with more states to potentially follow.
