The short-video-sharing app, popular among young people, is accused by its critics of giving Chinese authorities access to user data from around the world, which TikTok disputes.

Its boss Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean graduate of Harvard, tried Thursday in the US Congress to defend its application, in the face of intractable elected officials, who have mostly condemned in advance TikTok.

For more than five hours, elected officials hardly let the former banker speak and accused the Chinese Communist Party of using TikTok for spying on US user data and manipulation.

Beijing on Friday brushed off the accusations.

The Chinese government "has never requested and will not ask any company or individual to collect or hand over data from abroad in a way that would violate local laws," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

"The U.S. government has so far provided no evidence that TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security," the spokeswoman said, slamming the "unwarranted attacks" on the app.

TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew during his hearing by the US Congress, on March 23, 2023 in Washington © OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP

The White House, the European Commission, the Canadian and British governments and other organizations have recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones.

At the center of the fears is a 2017 Chinese law that requires local companies to hand over personal data that would be a matter of national security at the request of the authorities.

Suspicions

TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance Group, which has a similar but separate app for China.

On Thursday, Shou Zi Chew was forced to admit that personal data of some Americans was still subject to Chinese law, while saying that would soon change.

TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew during his hearing by the US Congress, on March 23, 2023 in Washington © OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP

Chew promised that by the end of the year, all information related to the 150 million U.S. users would be managed solely from servers of the Texas group Oracle, located in the United States.

ByteDance acknowledged in November that employees in China could access European user data.

In December, he acknowledged that employees had used data to spy on journalists. But the group vehemently denies any Chinese government control or access to its data.

"The Chinese government does not own or control ByteDance. It is a private company, "insisted Thursday its boss since 2021, Shou Zi Chew, before Congress, without convincing the elected officials.

"I still believe that the communist government in Beijing will always have control, and the ability to influence what you do," said Democratic Representative Frank Pallone.

TikTok's popularity has exploded thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, beyond its original audience, teenagers. The app has more than 100 million users in the United States.

It has surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in recent years in "time spent" by American adults on each platform, and is now close behind Netflix, according to Insider Intelligence.

© 2023 AFP