TikTok CEO Shou Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee tomorrow to testify about TikTok’s consumer privacy and data security practices, the platform’s impact on kids, and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) jointly spoke with Fox News’ Bret Baier about the national privacy standard they are leading on together to prevent any app, website, and platform like TikTok from ever spying on Americans again. PERMALINK

THE IMPORTANCE OF TOMORROW’S HEARING

“This hearing has been long overdue. This will be the first time the CEO of TikTok, Mr. Chew, has been before any congressional committee.

“It's very important that he answer for some of the repeated lies that we know about TikTok and their association with ByteDance and ultimately the Chinese Communist Party.

“[We have] growing concerns about the threat that this platform, this app poses in the United States of America but also it highlights the concerns around other technological tools or weapons that China may use for their own strategic future and that's why we are joining together.

“We believe it's very important that we hold TikTok accountable but also make sure that any app or platform is ultimately protecting individual Americans’ privacy and making sure that Americans are protected from harm and our children are protected from harm.”

TIKTOK’s CONNECTION WITH BYTEDANCE AND THE CCP

“It is clear that TikTok will say anything to ensure that it is not banned in the United States of America.”

“They have said that they're not surveilling on Americans or spying on Americans and yet now we know that they were used. ByteDance used TikTok to spy on American journalists.

“We know that they continue to say that their data is not going back to China and that this walled off from the Chinese Communist Party and yet we now have recordings of employees at TikTok that say that everything is seen by China.”

A NATIONAL DATA PRIVACY STANDARD

“There is a lot of common ground and I think the fact that Mr. Chew is going directly to the TikTok users in America, that 150 million Americans [use it], now only underscores the importance of us taking action, because Americans’ data privacy is not protected.

“This platform can also be used to manipulate what people see or hear or think.

“It all points to the importance of us passing a larger national privacy standard, as Mr. Pallone is joining me to [achieve], because we believe this is a clarion call as to the need for a national data privacy standard to minimize the amount of data that TikTok, Big Tech, or other data brokers are collecting to begin with, to make sure that Americans are alerted when their data is being used or stored or transferred over to countries like China and to protect our kids for those under 17.

“The legislation that we propose would make it illegal to track our kids online and to make sure that private conversations are actually private, that apps and devices would be prohibited from listening to our private conversations when we haven't given them permission.

“This is all really important and we need to ban TikTok and we need to pass a national data privacy law.”

CLICK HERE to watch Thursday’s hearing.