Does TikTok access your home Wi-Fi network? Is TikTok watching your pupils? And can TikTok please keep Texas' name out of its f*cking mouth?
Those were just a few of the bizarre queries that Chew faced on a huge day for the future of the app.
The U.S. government had already banned TikTok from federal employees' phones amid concerns that China might be able to use it as a backdoor for spying, and it's not alone. The Canadian government and several state and provincial governments in North America have also passed similar laws, while some countries such as India have banned the app outright.
But will the U.S. ban TikTok on all phones in the country? Or will it force TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to spin the app off and sell to an owner based outside of China? And how can the U.S. be sure that citizens' data doesn't fall into the hands of the Chinese government, which has strong control over the companies on its territory?
Those are the big questions swirling around Congress right now, and while it's hard to answer them immediately, it's pretty easy to answer some of the other bizarre queries that were thrown out at the hearing on Thursday.
Here are the most unintentionally hilarious questions that came up about "Tic Tac" in Congress, and what TikTokers had to say after they went viral.
Is TikTok watching your eyes?
@jamiethisyoujeffriesThis is embarrassing. #DChearing #Tiktok #TiktokBan #keeptiktokalive #keeptiktok #TiktokUs #tiktokusa #firstamendment #Congress #Boomer #Chew #tiktokceo
Georgia Representative Buddy Carter seemed convinced at the hearing that TikTok is watching people's eyes for pupil dilations, though it's unclear where he's getting his information from.
"Can you tell me right now, can you say with 100% certainty, that TikTok does not use the phone's camera to determine whether the content that elicits a pupil dilation should be amplified by the algorithm?" he asked.
"We do not collect body, face or voice data to identify our users," Chew replied. He added that TikTok only looks at where your eyes are to apply filters like sunglasses, and ensured this data was stored on the local device only.
"I find that hard to believe!" the Republican replied.
TikTok's algorithm is known to serve you videos based on your likes, shares, comments and how long you spend watching videos.
How does TikTok know your age?
Carter didn't get the answer he was looking for about pupils, so he kept going with an even more unusual question.
If TikTok isn't watching people's faces, "how do you determine what age they are then?" the Georgia representative asked.
"We rely on age dating as our key age assurance," Chew replied.
Carter still didn't get it so Chew defined "age dating" for him.
"When you ask the user what age they are."
Social media users later roasted Carter on various platforms.
"Buddy's grandkids really need to step up and talk to him (if he has any)," wrote one user on his Instagram.
Will TikTok stop using the name "Project Texas"?
@jiaen1996#TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified at the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. March 23, 2023.
Republican Representative August Pfluger of Texas had plenty of unusual questions for Chew, including a request that TikTok not use the word "Texas" for one of its projects.
"Please rename your project. Texas is not the appropriate name," he told Chew. "We stand for freedom and transparency, and we don't want your project."
Chew could be seen stifling a laugh at that question.
According to Chew, TikTok plans to spend $1.5 billion to store its data on U.S. users in Texas, in a partnership with the tech company Oracle called Project Texas. The whole project is aimed at easing lawmakers' fears that U.S. data will be kept in China instead of on American soil.
Does TikTok support genocide?
Pfluger was a human highlight reel more than once at the TikTok hearings.
At one point he asked Chew: "Does TikTok support genocide?"
"Again, Congressman, I'm here to talk about TikTok," Chew replied.
Pfluger might've been digging at the Chinese government's years-long campaign against ethnic Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims in the country's west, which many western critics have described as genocide.
TikTok generally censors sex and discussions about violent topics such as genocide, although some users have found ways to talk about it anyway.
In other words, Pfluger was stumbling around a legit issue in China, though he struggled to show how TikTok might play into it.
TikTokers roasted Pfluger for the question on the platform.
"I'm not even [an] American citizen and I get embarrassed," wrote one user.
"Did TikTok make my wife and kids leave me?" asked another.
"If I plug the phone to my charger does TikTok get access to my house?"
Turns out that last joke question wasn't far off from what Chew was asked on Thursday.
Can TikTok access my Wi-Fi network?
@heavyoncarsRep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) asks TikTok CEO Shou Chew: "Does TikTok access the home WiFi network?" #senatehearing #tiktokban #fyp #foryoupage #techsupport
Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina had one of the cringiest questions of the day when he demonstrated that he doesn't quite grasp how Wi-Fi works.
"Mr. Chew, does TikTok access the home Wi-Fi network?" he asked.
"Only if the user turns on the Wi-Fi," Chew said. "I'm sorry, I may not understand the —"
"If I have a TikTok app on my phone and my phone was on my home Wi-Fi network, does TikTok access that network?" Hudson asked.
"It would have to, to access the network and get [a] connection to the internet," Chew replied.
Chew ultimately testified before Congress for about five hours and faced a grilling from both Democrats and Republicans. Privacy and misinformation came up a lot, as did questions about child safety.
The company later criticized the hearing in a statement.
"Shou came prepared to answer questions from Congress, but, unfortunately, the day was dominated by political grandstanding that failed to acknowledge the real solutions already underway through Project Texas or productively address industry-wide issues of youth safety," TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told CNBC in a statement.
"Also not mentioned today by members of the Committee: the livelihoods of the 5 million businesses on TikTok or the First Amendment implications of banning a platform loved by 150 million Americans."
No date has been set for a ruling on TikTok.
