In The News

Several Congress members took the opportunity on Thursday to question Chew about drug concerns on TikTok. Angie Craig of Minnesota referenced a Washington Post report from earlier this month that showed drugs are easily accessible on the platform.

“What are you going to do to move past these token efforts to prevent teenagers from accessing drugs on your platform?” she asked.

In the past TikTok has directed users who search certain drug-related hashtags, like “fentanyl” to resource pages. Craig suggested that users seeking drugs would likely not use hashtags, and that dealers are able to bypass such measures using different hashtag spellings and emojis.

“We do take illegal illegal drugs content on our platform very seriously – it violates our guidelines,” Chew said. He added that the company is working to more proactively find drug-related content.

Rick Allen also questioned Chew about drug-related content on TikTok, noting a 2021 investigation from the Wall Street Journal that revealed the app served an account purporting to be 13 years old more than 500 videos about drug use.

Chew said such content violates TikTok policy and that they are removed when identified.

“We take this very seriously,” he said. “This is an industry-wide challenge, and we’re investing as much as we can. We don’t think it represents the majority of the users’ experience on TikTok, but it does happen.”