TikTok CEO takes to the app to announce firm’s greater than 150M energetic customers within the U.S.

Forward of his testimony earlier than Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew announced in a TikTok video that the video app now has greater than 150 million customers within the US — up from 100 million in 2020. He additionally talked about that TikTok hosts to greater than 5 million companies within the nation.

Amid talks of banning the ByteDance-owned app over nationwide safety considerations as tensions between the U.S. and China proceed to rise, Chew touted these numbers to display how the app is a crucial a part of U.S. tradition.

“That’s nearly half of the U.S. coming to TikTok to attach, to share to be taught or simply have some enjoyable,” he mentioned within the video.

The exec moreover used the video to ask TikTok customers to come back to the app’s protection by letting their elected representatives know what they cherished concerning the app. The corporate might use these feedback as a sworn statement to show TikTok’s reputation.

“I’ll be testifying earlier than Congress later this week to share all that we’re doing to guard People utilizing the app,” Chew mentioned.

 

The Home Vitality and Commerce Committee will grill the app’s CEO concerning the app’s privateness practices and the way it protects kids.

“People should know the extent to which their privateness is jeopardized and their information is manipulated by ByteDance-owned TikTok’s relationship with China. What’s worse, we all know Huge Tech corporations, like TikTok, use dangerous algorithms to use kids for revenue and expose them to harmful content material on-line. We have to know what actions the corporate is taking to maintain our youngsters protected from on-line and offline harms,” the Committee mentioned in a press release issued last week.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Home Overseas Affairs Committee voted in favor of a bill that might give Biden authorities energy to ban the app. In the meantime, reports indicate that the authorities are placing stress on ByteDance to promote TikTok or face an embargo as its hyperlinks with China have them involved about consumer information being handed on to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP). Not too long ago, the FBI and U.S. Division of Justice also began investigations into TikTok after some staff allegedly used the app to spy on U.S. journalists.

TikTok has spent practically $1.5 billion on a appeal offensive with steps that included an independent audit by Oracle and invites to press and regulators to go to its newly constructed Transparency Center in L.A. The corporate additionally initiated “Venture Texas,” which goals to handle considerations from lawmakers and present that the U.S. enterprise is clear and separate from China-based operations.

Prior to now few weeks, the U.K., the EU, Canada, and New Zealand have all banned TikTok on completely different sorts of official authorities gadgets, similar to bans in the U.S.

Aside from this, TikTok introduced an overhaul of its community guidelines right this moment with new insurance policies round using AI in content material and local weather misinformation. The brand new guidelines state that accounts should clearly disclose using AI in movies.