On 5 October 2023, Chairs of five Committees of the European Parliament Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain – Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs / LIBE), David McAllister (EPP, Germany – Committee on Foreign Affairs / AFET), Anna Cavazzini (Greens, Germany – Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection / IMCO), Cristian-Silviu Buşoi (Renew, Romania – Committee on Industry, Research and Energy / ITRE) and Nathalie Loiseau (Renew, France – Subcommittee on Security and Defence / SEDE) renewed their invitation for Mr Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, to participate in a joint committee hearing.
This invitation is a follow-up to a previous one, sent in July 2023 and declined by Mr Chew. Given that TikTok has a base of 125 million monthly active users in the EU, the Committee Chairs previously noted that with growth comes responsibility. For this reason, and in light of the Irish Data Protection Commission’s recent findings of non-compliance by TikTok with GDPR rules regarding the processing of personal data of child users, the Chairs believe that such a hearing with Europe’s lawmakers is of crucial importance.
The Chairs are convinced that the in-person participation of Mr Chew would be the most beneficial way of engaging with the members of the European Parliament, and of addressing the growing concerns about TikTok’s practices on data protection and data security, including processing of personal data of children, consumer protection, tracking, use of dark patterns, and TikTok algorithms, as well as content moderation and the fight against illegal and harmful content.
You can read the full letter here.