Senator faces backlash for asking TikTok CEO if he’s a secret Chinese communist
www.independent.co.uk
‘Happy to provide additional basic facts to you or your staff that I learned in elementary school. Ask anytime,’ California Democrat tells Tom Cotton

‘Happy to provide additional basic facts to you or your staff that I learned in elementary school. Ask anytime,’ California Democrat tells Tom Cotton

Tom Cotton is facing widespread criticism after he asked Singaporean TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew if had “ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party”.

The Arkansas Republican senator pursued the much-ridiculed line of questioning during a Senate hearing on child safety on social media on Wednesday, which was attended by a number of big tech CEOs such as Mr Chew.

“You said today, as you often say, that you live in Singapore – of what nation are you a citizen?” Mr Cotton asked.

“Singapore,” the CEO responded.

…

“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?” Mr Cotton then asked.

“Senator, I’m Singaporean – no,” Mr Chew responded.

Unable to let the matter go, Mr Cotton asked: “Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”

“No, senator, again, I’m Singaporean,” the tech CEO said.

  • Captain Janeway@lemmy.world
    132·
    9 months ago

    I’m not a CCP apologist, if that’s what you gathered. I believe all corporations in America should be held to the same security standards and requirements to protect consumer information.

    I think you might be overlooking my main point: no government should be given American citizen data, including China. We deserve senators who can adequately solve these problems rather than attacking a person based on their vague ethnic associations with a country or countries.

    Meta, Twitter/X, Reddit, etc. have been selling data to foreign governments for decades. Just because TikTok is Chinese owned doesn’t mean they’re the only ones guilty. And this senator is shifting the argument from a personal privacy one to a xenophobic one. He’s wasting our time and hurting our ability to achieve material changes in our law that will protect us from the CCP, Russia, Iran, etc.

    • Cylusthevirus@kbin.social
      94·
      9 months ago

      Then what’s the stuff in your original post about “being afraid of ideas?” Which ideas, exactly, were you referring to? Being nominally Communist and functionally Fascist?

      The CCP are not an ethnic or national group, they’re a malevolent political movement and opposing them is the farthest thing from xenophobia. They run China and create untold misery for Chinese citizens. Being originally from Singapore does not mean you’re not working for the CCP and that is absolutely relevant to this situation. Data privacy is one issue, nation state surveillance is another. There are quantitative and qualitative differences between them and both must be addressed. Google, Meta, and Amazon et al need to be reigned in, broken up, and some board members should see jail time. TikTok, (yet another front for the CCP like ALL Chinese Corps), needs to be handled differently and the CCP’s malfeasance should be exposed and talked about.

      Compare and contrast Huawei and say, Cisco. Cisco’s equipment is occasionally annoying and bad for consumers and their business practices suck. Huawei equipment is a national security risk. Big difference and you can’t even get into that without referencing the CCP because they’re driving it.

      Tom Cotton’s a dipshit and worded the question in the dumbest possible way, but stopped clock, etc.