--- title: "TikTok CEO tells legislators app \"never shared\" data with china" description: "Shou Zi Chew stated TikTok's parent business ByteDance is not controlled by any government or governmental organisation." author: "Anonymous User" published: 2023-03-22 canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2914/tiktok-ceo-tells-legislators-app-never-shared-data-with-china category: "news" tags: ["news", "tiktok"] reading_time: 3 minutes --- # TikTok CEO tells legislators app "never shared" data with china \ The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will tell lawmakers that the Chinese-owned short video app with over 150 million American users has never and will never share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, despite rising U.S. [national security](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/106107/how-does-the-national-security-council-function) concerns. \ \ [**TikTok**](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2889/us-threatens-to-ban-tiktok-if-the-software-is-not-distributed) has never asked for or given Chinese authorities access to user information from Americans. The [House of Representatives](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/44599/which-party-won-the-highest-number-of-seats-in-the-recently-concluded-elections-to-the-house-of-representatives-of-the-netherlands) Energy and Commerce Committee's prepared evidence, which was submitted on Tuesday, states that Chew would testify on Thursday that TikTok would not accede to such a request even if it were made. \ He asserted that no government or governmental body owns or controls ByteDance, the business that operates TikTok. Chew would tell the committee, "Let me say this clearly: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other government. \ Detractors of TikTok are concerned that the software may provide user information to China's government, which has prompted further requests for a ban from US legislators. This week, TikTok reported that the [Biden administration](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/82219/what-are-the-daunting-challenges-that-are-inherited-by-the-biden-administration) had forced its Chinese owners to relinquish their app ownership stakes or face having their company banned from the [United States](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2228/the-united-states-claims-seagate-broke-export-laws-by-selling-huawei-hard-drives). \ "Bans are only appropriate when there are no other choices. Yet there is a different choice "In his testimony, Chew made a notation. \ TikTok claims to have spent over $1.5 billion on "Project Texas," a programme it refers to as "rigorous [data security](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/43788/data-security-tips-you-need-to-know-about) efforts." \ After the procedure was complete, Chew said "All protected U.S. data will be protected by a security team led by Americans and controlled by U.S. law. Within this arrangement, the Chinese government cannot get access to it or compel access to it." \ [**Also Read: According to TikTok, employees in China have access to user data from the UK and the EU.**](https://www.mindstick.com/news/2294/according-to-tiktok-employees-in-china-have-access-to-user-data-from-the-uk-and-the-eu) \ According to the corporation, it started this month to destroy user-protected American data stored in [data centres](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/116053/will-run-ai-queries-on-indian-data-centres-microsoft) in Singapore and Virginia after starting to transmit new American data to the [Oracle Cloud](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/104828/what-is-oracle-cloud-sql-developer-web) last year. Chew testified that this procedure is expected to be finished later this year. \ According to Chew's evidence, the firm is owned 20% by its founders, 20% by Sequoia, 20% by its employees, "including thousands of Americans," and 20% by international institutional investors like Blackrock and General Atlantic. \ TikTok stated on Monday that more than 150 million Americans now routinely use the site, up from its projection of 100 [million users](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/38813/which-country-s-domain-cn-has-become-the-world-s-most-commonly-used-in-the-internet-with-16-36-million-users-surpassing-germany-s-de-domain) in 2020. Chew's findings suggest that the typical user of today is an adult who has completed college. \ Despite making up 10% of our worldwide population, users in the United States account for 25% of all views, according to Chew's testimony. \ According to Chew, the app's most recent iterations do not gather accurate or estimated Geolocation data from users in the United States. \ --- Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/news/2914/tiktok-ceo-tells-legislators-app-never-shared-data-with-china Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.