TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew stated the Chinese language-owned quick video app firm faces a pivotal second as a rising variety of US lawmakers search to ban the favored app over nationwide safety considerations.
Chew stated in a video posted on TikTok early Tuesday the app now has greater than 150 million lively month-to-month US customers. “That is nearly half the US coming to TikTok,” Chew stated. TikTok in 2020 stated it had 100 million US customers.
Chew, who will testify Thursday earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee, stated: “Some politicians have began speaking about banning TikTok.”
“Now this might take TikTok away from all 150 million of you,” he stated within the video that options the US Capitol within the background.
He requested TikTok customers to go away feedback about what they wished US lawmakers to learn about “what you like about TikTok.”
Chew additionally stated 5 million US companies use TikTok to succeed in clients.
TikTok’s critics concern its US consumer knowledge could possibly be handed on to China’s authorities by the app, which is owned by the Chinese language tech firm ByteDance. TikTok rejects the spying allegations.
TikTok additionally stated Tuesday it had up to date its group use pointers and provided extra particulars of its plans to safe the info of US customers. The corporate stated it had began to delete this month US consumer protected knowledge in knowledge facilities in Virginia and Singapore after it began routing new US knowledge to the Oracle Cloud final 12 months.
Final week, TikTok stated the Biden administration demanded that TikTok’s Chinese language homeowners divest their stake within the app or it might face a US ban.
TikTok, which has stated it has spent greater than $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 12,396 crore) on rigorous knowledge safety efforts, stated “if defending nationwide safety is the target, divestment would not resolve the issue: a change in possession wouldn’t impose any new restrictions on knowledge flows or entry.”
A rising variety of US lawmakers assist a ban on TikTok. This contains Vitality and Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, congressional aides informed reporters on a name Monday. On Friday, six extra US senators backed bipartisan laws to present Biden new powers to ban TikTok.
On March 1, the US Home Overseas Affairs Committee voted alongside occasion traces to present President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
