On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) stated that, according to testimony in a congressional hearing held last week on the Uyghur genocide in China, witnesses testified that the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, “is routinely used to basically locate Uyghurs, to surveil them, and then to persecute them.” And pointed out that TikTok has been used “to spy on American citizens and journalists” before.
Krishnamoorthi said, “Last week, we had a hearing about the Uyghur genocide, where two million Uyghurs have been jailed in concentration camps, 800,000 children have been separated from their family, and women have been forcibly sterilized. It turns out that if you criticize the CCP because of the Uyghur genocide, those viewpoints get suppressed on the platform.”
He added, “ByteDance actually used the platform TikTok to spy on American citizens and journalists. That is very disturbing.”
Krishnamoorthi concluded, “During that Uyghur genocide hearing, witnesses came forward that the Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin — which, by the way, controls the algorithm of TikTok — is routinely used to basically locate Uyghurs, to surveil them, and then to persecute them. And unfortunately, that’s something we can’t endure here.”
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