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Why I Refused To Hand Over A TikTok Document To Congress
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Why I Refused To Hand Over A TikTok Document To Congress

BuzzFeed News·Chris Stokel-Walker·about 1 month ago
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When I first read the email, just after 6 a.m. on March 16, I couldn’t quite believe what I had seen. I was still waking up, so wondered if I was dreaming it. But it turned out to be true. The subject line, “‘TikTok Master Messaging’ Document,” made me anticipate something altogether different. Occasionally, I’ll get barely literate messages from angry old men — and they are always men — pointing out my folly in trusting TikTok, which they consider a Chinese puppet company. But this was different. This was a message from a staff member working on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which will be quizzing Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, live and in person this Thursday. They said the committee had spoken to a number of experts in advance of their hearing, some of whom referenced my story on a series of internal TikTok documents I had obtained that outlined how the company sought to downplay its links to China.…

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