TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to tell American lawmakers that the company is committed to user safety, data security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence amid a push to ban the popular social media app in the United States.
Chew is set to answer questions about TikTok’s effects on its young user base and possible national security risks when he appears before the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday.
Chew will urge lawmakers to not pursue a ban on the app or for the company to be sold off from its Chinese-based parent company ByteDance to new owners.
He will argue a ban on the app will hurt American small businesses, silence the voices of more than 150mln Americans, and reduce competition in an increasingly concentrated market, according to prepared remarks released ahead of Chew's testimony.
The CEO will also outline the company’s efforts to safeguard US user data and US national security interests, including a $1.5bln project to store this information on Oracle servers in the US known as Project Texas.
Chew will also push back against claims the app is beholden to the Chinese government or that it shares with it information about US users.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said in his prepared remarks.
“TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, US user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honour such a request if one was made.”
Contact the author at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter @emilyjjarvie