In an interview with CNN Jake Tapper asked Michael TikTok’s executive about the situation of human rights violations in China. They also discussed TikTok’s role and point of view on censoring content harmful to China’s image. But Beckerman Refrain to talk about China’s Uyghurs Rights issue despite confirming later that it’s a matter of human rights violation in China.
On Tuesday, Tiktok’s executive was asked multiple times to speak about China’s treatment of Muslim minorities and the Uyghurs address it as genocide as labeled by the US department.
Michael Beckerman refused multiple times of CNN’s Jake Tapper during the interview to acknowledge the act of crimes against humanity. Jake Tapper asked Michael that did he acknowledge the Chinese government’s concentration camp treatment of the Uyghurs and other Muslims. To which he replied saying, “That’s not what I focus on.”
Michael Beckerman is TikTok’s head of public policy in America and TikTok being a Chinese company has come under the scrutiny of United States security experts and lawmakers. It is now being argued that the app owned by parent company Byte dance which grew exponentially over the past few years may now on the grounds of security be forced to hand over the personal data of its customers in the US to China’s government.
It is now a matter of security that the experts predict China could identify intelligence opportunities or try influencing Americans by wrongfully using the data and information against them.
Despite all this, Beckerman has conveniently deferred from the allegations that the company has also censored politically sensitive content in China where it has been seen that in Xinjiang up to 2 million Muslims and Uyghurs have been detained in the camps.
It has also been reported by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that China has committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
Beckerman on given a second opportunity casually said, “I’m just not an expert on what’s happening in China. So, it’s not an area that I’m focusing on.” He also denied censoring the content related to the camps in China saying that moderation decisions are made in the US and not in China and that there is plenty of content available on TikTok about the camp.
While denying the censoring of content, “We do not censor content on behalf of any government,” Beckerman said. “That does not violate our content guidelines.”
Being asked the third time if the TikTok executive was afraid that he would be fired for discussing China’s treatment of Uyghurs he refused saying that, “Look, I think there are many human rights violations that are happening in China and around the world,” Beckerman said. “I think these are very important. I’m not here to be the expert on human rights violations around the world.”
Michael also said that he doesn’t think it right that some parents in America believe that China is trying to destroy their children through TikTok, he says,
“The same people that are complaining about employees in China and acts from China, and all these things … they are also suggesting that here in the US, we should apply Chinese-style media rules,” Beckerman said. “We have freedom of speech, among other things here in the United States.”
Despite all this, he also acknowledges that there are human rights violations happening in China says, Brooke Oberwetter. He also said that Beckerman is simply following his role of explaining TikTok’s approach to the content.
Further, TikTok called the suggestion that Beckerman refused to acknowledge China’s treatment of Uyghurs, “outrageous.”
Yet, it should not be forgotten that TikTok is additionally being accused of promoting harmful content like suicide and eating disorders incase of teenagers.
