Possible TikTok ban inspires rare bipartisanship in Congressional hearing: 'Good day for America'
Lawmakers heard testimony from TikTok's CEO about data and privacy concerns
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress Thursday to address privacy and data concerns about the popular social media app.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed concerns that TikTok's ownership by the Chinese tech company ByteDance opens up its 150 million American users to data collection by the Chinese Communist Party.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., was the lone lawmaker on Capitol Hill who defended the social media company, saying, "Why the hell are we whipping ourselves into a hysteria to scapegoat TikTok?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2020 file photo, a view of the TikTok app logo, in Tokyo. The Biden administration is putting on hold a deal brokered by the Trump administration that would have had Oracle and Walmart buying a big stake in popular video app TikTok, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
"Let's not be racist towards China and express our xenophobia when it comes to TikTok," he argued, adding that Republicans "ain't got no swag. That's why they want to ban TikTok."
Fox News' Judge Jeanine Pirro was pleased lawmakers were coming together in a display of bipartisanship to potentially ban TikTok but slammed the idea it was "racist" for the country to consider banning an app that the CCP uses to spy on Americans.
"These people who respond with 'it's racist to be against the Chinese' – it just shows you how shallow they are," she said Thursday on "The Five." "They're not interested in looking into what the problem is."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TIKTOK LAUNCHES PROJECT TO CONVINCE WEST IT'S NOT SPYING FOR CHINA
"I mean, is it a surprise that they would use this particular medium to get information on us, to be able to spy on what our kids do and be able to know everything about what's going on?" she asked.
Pirro called out Bowman for defending TikTok and not mentioning the CCP's history of human rights abuses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He doesn't even talk about the Uighars or the concentration camps or the genocide that's going on in China," she noted. "I mean, it's just everything is through the lens of racism. Well, you've got to give that up. You've got to deal with the facts because racism doesn't mean anything anymore. It doesn't mean anything to me anymore when someone says someone else is a racist."
UKRAINE - 2020/10/08: In this photo illustration, a TikTok Chinese video-sharing social networking service logo seen displayed on a smartphone with flags of the United States and China in the background. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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"I think this was a good day for America," Pirro concluded. "I think with the continuing hearings on China, people will hopefully start to recognize how dangerous China is to the United States."