Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok, testified before US House Committee on Energy and Commerce on March 23 amid concerns about a potential ban of the app in the country. During five hour hearing, Chew was questioned on potential threats of TikTok on US national security.
During the hearing, House Committee raised concerns over threats of Chinese-owned application on national security and its regulations on "harmful" content on the platform. Some representatives demonstrated examples of videos on the platform that allegedly promoted violence and self-harming, especially for young users of the app.
Chew, in turn, commented that China does not own or control ByteDance (TikTok parent company) and does not access US users' data, claiming that the majority of presented allegations are "hypothetical risks". He also pointed out that TikTok employs over 40 000 moderators and uses its algorithm that removes inappropriate content.
The head of the company also shared the company's plans to improve US user data safety and comply with legal regulations with a new initiative named "Project Texas". The $1.5bn project is expected to help store user data in the US and allow American security authorities access and inspect it.
TikTok is a largely popular social media application with over 1bn active monthly users around the world and over 150mn users in the US. The company is located in Singapore and Los Angeles with headquarters in Beijing.
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