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. Home Vitality and Commerce Committee this week, in a video posted to the platform Tuesday.
Filming from Washington, D.C., Chew emphasised the massive scale of TikTok customers, small and medium-sized companies and its personal workers primarily based within the U.S. that depend on the corporate.
The message might preview his enchantment to lawmakers Thursday, the place he will likely be confronted with questions in regards to the means of its Chinese language guardian firm ByteDance, and the Chinese language authorities, to entry U.S. consumer info collected by the app.
TikTok says it has labored to create a danger mitigation plan to make sure that U.S. knowledge does not get into the arms of a international adversary by way of its app. The corporate has mentioned U.S. consumer knowledge is already saved exterior of China.
However many lawmakers and intelligence officers appear to stay unconvinced that the data will be protected whereas TikTok is owned by a Chinese language firm. TikTok mentioned final week that the Committee on International Funding 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, or 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 achieve their clients, 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 second for us,” Chew mentioned, referencing lawmakers’ threats of a TikTok ban. “This might 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 learn about why they love TikTok.
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