In written testimony posted on Tuesday by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew assured lawmakers that the Chinese-owned short video app, with over 150 million American users, has never shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government, and would never do so. Chew will testify on Thursday, and will state that TikTok's parent company ByteDance is not owned or controlled by any government or state entity. He will say, "Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country." TikTok's critics have expressed concerns about the possibility of its US user data being passed on to China's government, which has led to growing calls from U.S. lawmakers to ban the app. Last week, TikTok announced that the Biden administration had demanded that its Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or face a U.S. ban.
