WASHINGTON – Chinese-owned quick video app TikTok faces a “pivotal moment” as a rising variety of US lawmakers search to ban the favored app over nationwide safety considerations, CEO Shou Zi Chew mentioned.
Mr. Chew mentioned in a video posted on TikTok early on Tuesday that the app now has greater than 150 million energetic month-to-month US customers, representing virtually half of the nation’s inhabitants and up from the 100 million US customers it had in 2020.
Mr. Chew, who will testify Thursday earlier than the House Energy and Commerce Committee, famous that some politicians had been speaking about banning TikTok.
“This comes at a pivotal moment for us,” he mentioned on the video that featured the US Capitol within the background and acquired greater than 3.8 million views because it was posted earlier within the day.
“Some politicians have started talking about banning TiktTok. Now this could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.”
Mr. Chew requested TikTok customers to depart feedback about what they wished US lawmakers to learn about “what you like about TikTok“, and hundreds responded in assist.
TikTok‘s critics concern that its US person knowledge may very well be handed on to China’s authorities by the app, which is owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance. TikTok rejects the spying allegations.
Last week, TikTok mentioned the Biden administration demanded that its Chinese house owners divest their stake within the app or it might face a US ban.
On Wednesday, TikTok creators and New York Representative Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat, will maintain a press convention outside the US Capitol to oppose a TikTok ban.
Mr. Bowman described the push to ban TikTok as “fear mongering” in an interview with Reuters.
He mentioned the United States wanted complete “Big Tech regulation” that addressed Facebook, Alphabet’s YouTube, Twitter and others, however singling out TikTok was “unacceptable.”
Banning TikTok “would be another message to younger voters that we don’t care about what you think,” Mr. Bowman mentioned.
Mr. Chew mentioned 5 million US companies additionally used TikTok to achieve prospects.
TikTok additionally mentioned Tuesday it had up to date its group use tips and supplied extra particulars of its plans to safe the information of US customers.
The firm mentioned it had began to delete this month US person protected knowledge in knowledge facilities in Virginia and Singapore after it began routing new US knowledge to the Oracle Cloud final yr.
TikTok, which has mentioned it has spent greater than $1.5 billion on rigorous knowledge safety efforts, mentioned “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 rising variety of US lawmakers assist a ban on TikTok, together with House Energy 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 offer Mr. Biden new powers to ban TikTok.
On March 1, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted alongside social gathering strains to offer President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok. – Reuters
