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On Thursday, Congress held a hearing about child safety on social media. It invited the CEOs of many of the top social media sites, including X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Discord. The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled them for four hours. But the most newsworthy bit came about midway through the hearing when Senator Tom Cotton got his turn to grill the group of CEOs.
Senator Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, really showed how lacking America’s education system is with his line of questioning. Asking TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, about his citizenship and where he was born multiple times. Ironically, this TikTok video perfectly sums up the line of questioning from Senator Cotton, who apparently doesn’t know that Singapore is not part of China. For those unaware, Singapore gained independence from the British in 1963 and briefly joined the Federation of Malaysia before breaking away for independent sovereignty in 1965.
Obviously, Senator Cotton was looking for one thing, and that was to get an “aha” moment with Chew and his relationship with China. The only relationship he has is working for a company based in China – that’d be ByteDance.
Of course, Senator Cotton did not establish what this line of questioning had to do with what the hearing was about – Child Safety on Social Media.
Singaporeans call the line of questioning “pure ignorance”
The whole world pays attention to what happens in the US, and that’s the case with Singapore, too. Those that live in Singapore have called the line of questioning from Senator Cotton “pure ignorance” and “racist”. Singaporeans are not wrong with that conclusion either.
One user from Singapore stated that “just because he looks Chinese does not mean he’s from China.”
The US government has been worried about TikTok for quite some time and has tried to ban the app a few times due to its ties to China. But on the flip side, the government doesn’t question Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook, about its ties to the Chinese government and abiding by their censorship rules. No one’s talking about banning Apple from working with China. This makes it really seem like it’s more about this popular app being the only one not owned by an American company.
In the same hearing, Zuckerberg apologized to parents of victims
During this hearing, the Senate invited parents of victims who had been harassed or harmed by children. Meta’s CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, turned and apologized to everyone in attendance. Saying that “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through”. He continued, “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Zuckerberg wasn’t alone; Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel offered similar condolences to parents whose children were able to access illegal drugs by using Snapchat. In 2023, a suit was filed against Snapchat by the parents of more than 60 teenagers who were victims of overdoses. With the drugs being accessed by Snapchat.
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