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Comment by Biologist123 | Hacker News Reader

Yesterday I watched the COO of TikTok, Vanessa Pappas testify to a US Senate committee.

I appreciate there’s politics going on, but also felt Pappas did not help her case at all with answers which were really evasive.

I don’t understand though: at what point is a decision taken that national security is more important than the business model of a few companies?

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I assume all public testimonies in front of government officials are a political exercise. The politician gets some video clips they can use as evidence of “taking action” or at least attempting to take action, and the business gets to keep doing what they are doing at the cost of an executive traveling to DC and saying nothing material over and over for a few hours.

Yes, especially this senator in particular, an obvious Russia supporter[1], has absolutely no grounds to conduct a McCarthy communist hunt. He knows his base is the audience here and that they are too ignorant to see a China-Russia alignment. His party should have chosen anyone other than him to run this grandstand hearing exercise.

And yeah she was being super evasive. Between the two of them, there was no information transfer.

https://news.yahoo.com/josh-hawley-only-senator-voted-163304...

The point where it becomes politically profitable to do so. It is only a matter of ideology and majority.

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