TikTok is “at a turning point”, according to its general manager


by David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew said the Chinese video-sharing app is at a pivotal time because of a growing number of U.S. lawmakers seeking to ban it for security reasons.

Shou Zi Chew announced in a video posted on TikTok on Tuesday that shows the US Capitol in the background that the app now has more than 150 million monthly active users in the United States.

“Almost half of Americans use TikTok,” he said.

In 2020, TikTok had 100 million US users.

TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny over fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, which the group rejects.

TikTok’s chief executive is scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

TikTok, which says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security, also announced an update to its usage guidelines on Tuesday and provided more details on its plans to secure user data. Americans.

The company said last week that President Joe Biden’s administration had demanded that ByteDance divest its stake in the app or it could be banned in the United States.

Countries such as Belgium, the United Kingdom or New Zealand, as well as the European Commission, have banned the application on the phones of their civil servants or their parliamentarians.

In the Netherlands, civil servants will soon no longer be allowed to use TikTok, the Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.

(Report David Shepardson, written by Andrew Heavens and Jane Merriman; French version Nathan Vifflin, edited by Diana Mandiá and Kate Entringer)












©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.



Source link -87