TikTok CEO gives first testimony at US hearing: "Not owned by the Chinese government"

TikTok, a video posting app operated by a Chinese company that has been banning the use of government employees by the US government and others. CEO Chu testified for the first time at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing.

At the beginning, CEO Chu explained that there is no fact that personal data has been leaked to the Chinese government through the app, stating that "TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is not owned by the Chinese government, and the data of American users is managed by an American company in the United States."

He said that the safety of users, especially young people, was a top priority, and that he would protect U.S. users from any unauthorized access from abroad and that they would not be interfered with by any government.

Ban siege spreading around the world

TikTok is under siege around the world, mainly in the West.

In the United States, the government has banned federal employees from using TikTok on work devices, and more than half of the U.S. state governments, including South Dakota and Utah, have banned apps on state-issued devices.

This is due to concerns that your personal information has been leaked to the Chinese government.

The ban has spread to education, with at least 10 universities, including the University of Texas at Austin and Idaho State University, banning the use of apps while connected to university Wi-Fi.

Furthermore, on the 1st of this month, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives passed a bill to ban the use of TikTok in the country, and on the 15th, the Foreign Investment Committee of the US government demanded that parent company ByteDance sell the shares of the companies that operate TikTok to companies outside China.

If the company does not accept the sale, more than 1 million U.S. users could be affected.

These movements have also been made in Western countries, and the EU = European Union executive body, the European Commission, the Canadian government, and the UK government have also banned the use of TikTok on devices used for work.