(Washington) The boss of TikTok Shou zi Chew welcomed Tuesday that the Chinese social network has exceeded 150 million monthly users in the United States, but regretted that “ politicians are talking about banning TikTok ”, in a rare direct intervention on the platform.
“This is a turning point for TikTok,” he said in response to threats from US authorities who are considering banning the platform.
Shou zi Chew, a Singaporean citizen, will be heard Thursday by a powerful parliamentary committee of the American House of Representatives on two main themes, the impact of the application on children and his relations with the Chinese Communist Party.
Many American elected officials and Western governments accuse TikTok of giving Beijing access to user data around the world, which the platform has always denied.
“ Almost half of Americans come to TikTok to exchange, create, learn, share things or just have fun ”, says Shou zi Chew.
The boss also mentions the “5 million businesses, mostly small and medium-sized, that use TikTok to communicate with consumers” and the 7,000 TikTok employees in the United States.
“Tell me in the comments what you want your elected representatives to know why you love TikTok,” he concludes.
This is the first time that Shou zi Chew will be heard by the US Congress. The CEO of the Chinese social network had already been received in Brussels at the beginning of January to discuss with several senior European officials.
Political pressure against the app has skyrocketed in recent months.
The White House banned officials of federal institutions from having the app on their smartphones, according to a law ratified in early January. The European Commission and the Canadian and British governments have taken similar decisions for the mobile phones of their civil servants. On Tuesday, the BBC advised its staff to remove TikTok from work phones.
Last week, the US government demanded that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, sell the app or risk being banned in the US.
The destruction in February of a supposed Chinese spy balloon sparked renewed tensions with China. Several bills are in the pipeline to ban TikTok, which is regularly described as a threat to national security.
The increased weight in Congress of the Republicans, who have held the majority in the House since January, risks further complicating the situation for the platform.