The chair of a U.S. House of Representatives committee on China’s Communist Party and other legislators on Thursday raised “deep concern” and asked for answers regarding reports. As a result, an account that shared clips from a film about pro-democracy Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai was removed from the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok, among other content moderation decisions.
In a letter to TikTok CEO Show Zi Chew, Representative Mike Gallagher and 12 other Republican lawmakers requested “additional information about TikTok’s content moderation policies and practices.”
The Michigan-based Acton Institute said its TikTok account was suspended last week for posting content from the video about Lai. The lawmakers claimed the account was reinstated after news outlets reported that it had been temporarily disabled. TikTok did not immediately comment.