TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — During a congressional hearing on Thursday (March 23) TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew (周受資) failed to directly respond to a flurry of questions over security concerns including whether the platform can be used to push Chinese Communist Party (CCP) messaging to justify an invasion of Taiwan.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing in which lawmakers grilled Chew for five hours over numerous privacy, safety, and societal concerns. The committee's chair, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, started off by warning the American public that "TikTok is a weapon by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on you and manipulate what you see and exploit for future generations."

Early on during her questioning of Chew, Rodgers asked if the platform's moderation tools had been used to delete content relating to the Uyghur Genocide. Chew responded by claiming that TikTok does not remove such content and is a "place of freedom of expression."

The chair then asked whether the content about the Tiananmen Massacre is removed from TikTok. After first claiming to have not heard the question, and following Rodgers repeating "the massacre in Tiananmen Square," Chew said, "That kind of content is available on our platform." Rodgers then warned Chew that "making false or misleading statements to Congress is a federal crime."

Rodgers next asked him if he could say "with 100% certainty that Bytedance or the CCP cannot use your company, or its divisions, to make content to promote pro-CCP messages for an act of aggression against Taiwan?" Chew responded by saying that TikTok does not promote or remove content at the request of Beijing.

She then repeated her question to confirm that he is 100% certain that the CCP cannot use TikTok to push such messaging. Chew replied that it is TikTok's "commitment to this committee and all our users that we will keep this free from any manipulation by any government."

Rodgers said that if Chew is unable to ensure with 100% certainty that the CCP cannot use TikTok as a propaganda platform in this way, "I'll take that as a no."

Dan Ives, managing director of New York-based Wedbush Securities, was cited by AP as saying that Chew's failure to provide concrete answers to concerns about data access and security was “a disaster” and probably has laid the groundwork for a ban. Jasmine Enberg, a social media analyst at Insider Intelligence, told the news agency that Chew's choice to highlight TikTok's reach in the U.S. might have had the reverse desired effect and “actually strengthened U.S. lawmakers’ argument that TikTok poses a threat to both national security and young people.”

During a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global security threats held on March 8, committee vice chairman Marco Rubio asked FBI Director Christopher Wray if it is plausible that during preparations to invade Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use TikTok to "make sure Americans are seeing videos arguing why Taiwan belongs to China" and why the U.S. should not intervene. Wray again replied affirmatively and warned that there may not be many outward signs if such a propaganda campaign was launched.