Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., is due to appear before a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, DC, USA, on Wednesday, October 23, 2019.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned President Donald Trump at a dinner at the White House in October last year that Chinese tech companies pose a direct threat to U.S. business, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal indicating that people claim to be familiar with the case.
He is said to have argued that restricting these businesses should be more of a priority than purge in Facebook.
Around dinner time, Zuckerberg warned U.S. officials and lawmakers that Chinese tech companies pose a risk to American values and the nation’s technological dominance. The tech mogul is also said to have pointed out that TikTok, which is owned by Beijing headquarters ByteDance, does not share Facebook’s commitment to freedom of expression.
U.S. lawmakers Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer – who met Zuckerberg in September – requested a TikTok survey in October. A report on national security was launched shortly thereafter and Trump signed an executive order to ban this app this month with indications of national security concerns. TikTok confirmed over the weekend that it has launched a legal appeal against the ban.
TikTok presents great competition to the company of Facebook. The social video-sharing app, which has been booming in popularity in recent months, competes directly with Instagram. Given the size of TikTok’s audience, it is possible that companies would rather pay for advertising space on TikTok than on Instagram or Facebook.
A Facebook spokesman told CNBC on Monday: “Mark (Zuckerberg) has never advocated a ban on TikTok. He has repeatedly stated publicly that the biggest competitors to American tech companies are Chinese companies, with values that do not conform to democratic ideals such as “It’s ridiculous to suggest that years of concern about national security – raised by policymakers on both sides of the aisle – have only been shaped by Mark’s statements.”
Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal here.
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