TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, confirmed in a written testimony published by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee that the short video app, owned by Chinese entities, has never and will never share the data of its 150 million American users with the Chinese government, amid growing concerns regarding U.S. national security. He added that ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is not owned by any government entity or under its control. Chew is scheduled to address the committee, stating, "I say this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country."
Chew will testify before the committee tomorrow, Thursday. Critics of TikTok fear that user data in the U.S. could be leaked to the Chinese government and have increasingly called for U.S. lawmakers to ban the app. Last week, TikTok mentioned that the Biden administration requested Chinese shareholders to divest their stake in the app, or it could potentially face a U.S. ban. TikTok clarified that it has spent over $1.5 billion on what it calls stringent data security efforts under the name "Project Texas," attempting to persuade lawmakers and the Biden administration to support the plan.
This comes in the face of increasing calls to ban the app nationwide. The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment unanimously recommended in 2020 that ByteDance divest TikTok. Under pressure from then-President Donald Trump, ByteDance unsuccessfully sought a deal in late 2020 with Walmart and Oracle to transfer TikTok's U.S. assets to a new entity before Trump lost court battles attempting to ban the app in his country.
