Shou Zi Chew, chief govt officer of TikTok Inc., speaks through the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.
Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appealed on to the app’s customers, forward of what is anticipated to be a heated grilling within the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee this week, in a video posted to the platform on Tuesday.
Filming from Washington D.C., Chew emphasised the massive scale of TikTok customers, small and medium-sized companies and its personal workers based mostly within the U.S. that depend on the corporate. The message might preview his attraction to lawmakers on Thursday, the place he shall be confronted with questions in regards to the capacity of its Chinese mum or dad firm ByteDance, and the Chinese authorities, to entry U.S. person info collected by the app.
TikTok has labored to create a danger mitigation plan to make sure that U.S. information does not get into the arms of a overseas adversary by its app. The firm has mentioned U.S. person information is already saved exterior of China.
But many lawmakers and intelligence officers appear to stay unconvinced that the data might be protected whereas TikTok is owned by a Chinese firm. TikTok mentioned final week that the Committee on Foreign Investment within the U.S., which is reviewing dangers associated to the app, is pushing for ByteDance to promote its stake or face a ban.
Chew disclosed within the video that TikTok has greater than 150 million month-to-month lively customers (MAUs) within the U.S., representing huge progress from August 2020, when it mentioned for the primary time that it has about 100 million MAUs within the nation. That quantity consists of 5 million companies that use the app to succeed in their prospects, with most of these being small or medium-sized companies. He additionally mentioned TikTok has 7,000 U.S.-based workers.
“This comes at a pivotal moment for us,” Chew mentioned, referencing lawmakers’ threats of a TikTok ban. “This could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you.”
Chew then appealed to customers on to share within the feedback what they need their representatives to find out about why they love TikTok.
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