‘Happy to provide additional basic facts to you or your staff that I learned in elementary school. Ask anytime,’ California Democrat tells Tom Cotton

Tom Cotton is facing widespread criticism after he asked Singaporean TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew if had “ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party”.

The Arkansas Republican senator pursued the much-ridiculed line of questioning during a Senate hearing on child safety on social media on Wednesday, which was attended by a number of big tech CEOs such as Mr Chew.

“You said today, as you often say, that you live in Singapore – of what nation are you a citizen?” Mr Cotton asked.

“Singapore,” the CEO responded.

“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?” Mr Cotton then asked.

“Senator, I’m Singaporean – no,” Mr Chew responded.

Unable to let the matter go, Mr Cotton asked: “Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”

“No, senator, again, I’m Singaporean,” the tech CEO said.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    63
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    He only faces backlash from rational people, who somehow consistently seem to be in the minority.

    Let’s not pretend his base doesn’t fucking love him for being a racist, xenophobic piece of shit.

    Like we’ve seen with Trump, this kind of shit gets Republican votes.

    • platypus_plumba@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I have a question, and I do not have supporting evidence for it, but maybe people here know if it is true or not. So, I’ll ask that first.

      Is it true that TikTok promotes educational content in Asia while it promotes shallow content in the US?

      If so (again, I’ve read this but I don’t hace first hand evidence), why?