WASHINGTON – TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi said the Chinese-owned short video app company faces a pivotal moment as a growing number of US lawmakers seek to ban the popular app over national security concerns.
Mr Chew said in a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday that the app now has more than 150 million active monthly US users. “That’s almost half the US coming to TikTok,” he said.
TikTok in 2020 said it had 100 million US users.
Mr Chew, who will testify on Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said: “Some politicians have started talking about banning TikTok.
“Now this could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.”
He asked TikTok users to leave comments, telling US lawmakers “what you love about TikTok”. He also said five million US businesses use TikTok to reach customers.
TikTok’s critics fear its US user data could be passed on to China’s government by the app, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance. TikTok rejects the spying allegations.
TikTok also said on Tuesday it had updated its community use guidelines and offered more details of its plans to secure the data of US users. The company said that in March, it started deleting US user protected data in data centres in Virginia and Singapore after it began routing new US data to the Oracle Cloud last year.
Last week, TikTok said the Biden administration demanded that its Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or it could face a US ban.
TikTok, which said it has spent more than US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion) on rigorous data security efforts, said “if protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access”.
A growing number of US lawmakers support a ban on TikTok. They include Energy and Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, congressional aides told reporters on a call on Monday. On Friday, six more US senators backed bipartisan legislation to give US President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok.
On March 1, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted along party lines to give Mr Biden new powers to ban TikTok. REUTERS
