"That's just a fancy way of saying 'yes,'" Cárdenas said.
The House Committee for Energy and Commerce, where TikTok CEO Shou Chew was testifying, is now in recess. The hearing, which was called to discuss “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms,” saw intense skepticism from lawmakers about the company’s efforts to wall off US user data and address Washington’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China. Analysts have characterized the testimony as a “disaster” moment. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has threatened TikTok with a ban unless the company’s Chinese owners sell their shares in the company. It was during the hearing that TikTok CEO Shou Chew highlighted that the app does not do political ads, and said that the platform takes the issue of election misinformation seriously. He also said that the company does not currently sell user data to commercial data brokers, but could not commit that the company would never do so. Rep. Tony Cárdenas compared Chew to Mark Zuckerberg, noting that both of their answers to questions were not directly responsive. In the end, while a TikTok ban is far from a certainty, if it were to be banned, analysts say that Snapchat would be the biggest beneficiary.