‘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.
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“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.
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.