- On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
- Wall Street condemned Mr. Chu’s testimony, calling it a “moment of disaster” for TikTok.
- However, the Internet had a different reaction. He was admired, accepted and even compared to Pedro Pascal.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress on Thursday as calls for a forced sale or ban on its U.S. business gain momentum.
Insiders Dan Waitley and Aaron Mok said the hearings quickly devolved into a bloodshed of “yes or no” questions from politicians on both sides of the aisle, some of whom gave full answers from executives. He seemed uninterested in listening.
The idea behind the hearing is that TikTok, an app said to have 150 million monthly active users in the United States, or almost half of the country’s population, has a data privacy policy for social media apps and its It was to give lawmakers an opportunity to allay concerns about ties. To China through parent company Bytedance.
Instead, the testimony drew criticism from Wall Street.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said: wrote in the report Thursday’s testimony “will likely catalyze more calls by lawmakers and the White House to consider banning TikTok within the US if the company doesn’t spin off and force a sale from its Chinese parent company ByteDance.” “It was a moment of…”
“I don’t think he made any new friends or changed his mind today,” said Matthew Schettenhelm, senior litigation and government analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
But a snippet of testimony also went viral on TikTok. Mocking the process, lawmakers say they don’t know the app well enough to file a lawsuit.
And soon, Chu had the Internet out of control.
Wall Street condemned Chu’s testimony. On the internet it’s a different story.
Born and raised in Singapore, Mr. Chu earned an MBA from Harvard University, had an internship at startup Facebook, and previously worked for Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. He was named CEO of TikTok in May 2021. Since his appointment, the 40-year-old Chew has battled accusations of TikTok’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party and data privacy concerns.
Chew and TikTok’s support had begun preparations before the hearing began.
“I’m always on TikTok’s side,” said the popular TikTok creator with nearly 42,000 followers video Share on March 22nd.
Not surprisingly, much of Chew’s support is on his own TikTik. accounthe goes by the handle @shou.time and has over 45,000 followers.
“Regardless of the outcome, thank you for creating a platform for such a world. The interconnectedness you gave us will never be forgotten.” Rihanna’s TikTok video at this year’s Super Bowl.
“Apologies to the US Congress. You are great,” reads a comment with over 800 likes. another video.
LA-based fashion content creator Janet Ok video On March 23, when she herself met Chu. Most of the comments under the video strongly endorse Chew.
The comment, “That man has become a celebrity! I’m with Sho,” received more than 3,000 likes.
And the support he’s getting isn’t just limited to the business world.
there is even fan video editing A photo of the CEO with the TikTok sound usually used for celebrities that fans are craving. The video has surpassed his 1.2 million views, has more than 215,000 likes, and has received a wide range of comments in support of Chew.
“Please edit this guy more! Give him the Pedro Pascal treatment,” read one comment with over 12,400 likes. The internet’s latest extreme celebrity crush.
“My man, stand by him,” reads another comment with over 29,200 “likes.”
Why does the Internet love Chew so much now?
Two days before the Congressional hearings, the official TikTok account shared a rare video. Introduce yourself casually in publicIn the video, Chu described the hearing and asked viewers what they liked about the app.
The video has nearly 2 million likes as of March 24th. Most of the 130,000 comments are positive.
Sharing videos is a great marketing ploy that helped put the internet on Chu’s side, says Crystal Abidin, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University. Founder of the TikTok Cultural Research NetworkAvidin has been researching this app since 2018.
“It was also a very clever PR strategy by openly inviting people to comment on what they enjoyed about the app,” Abidin said.
She said Chu’s demeanor at the hearing also fueled the internet’s positive reaction. She described his reaction as tight and neat, and his poise as professional. Much of the viral reaction on social media, especially from people of Asian Pacific descent, by contrast, focused on how rude and condescending the tone of the interrogators was, Abidin said. Stated.
She added that Chu’s popularity is “not a cult of his celebrity,” unlike the cult of personality that is common among Silicon Valley tech CEOs.
“I think this is one of the few instances where the face of a globally popular app, the CEO, is a non-white American male.” He seems to be able to hold his own. “