Shou Chew will be heard by a powerful parliamentary committee, while the popular application of the Chinese group ByteDance risks a total ban in the United States.

"Let me tell you unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent in the service of China or any other country," the leader plans to say, according to his opening speech posted on the House of Representatives website.

"TikTok will remain a platform for free speech and will not be manipulated by any government," he insisted.

Many US elected officials, right and left, believe that the social network allows Beijing to access users' confidential data.

Some also fear that the app could serve as a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party to manipulate public opinion.

And the platform, like its competitors, is regularly accused of presenting risks to the mental and physical health of children and adolescents, from addiction to dangerous challenges such as the "headscarf game".

The Singaporean boss will defend TikTok's past and present efforts to better protect the data of US users, the most pressing issue if he wants to avoid a ban.

The company has already spent about $ 1.5 billion to set up "Project Texas", which consists of hosting this data only in the United States, on servers of the Texas group Oracle.

"Earlier this month, we began deleting all U.S. data stored on servers that do not belong to Oracle," Chew said. Thanks to this ad hoc subsidiary of TikTok, USDS, "it is impossible for the Chinese government to access it or force (the company) to give it access".

He also plans to mention that US users represent 10% of their global base, but 25% of views.

On Tuesday, he congratulated himself on having 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 the first time Shou Chew will be heard by the US Congress. The CEO of the Chinese social network was received in Brussels at the beginning of January to exchange with several senior European officials.

© 2023 AFP