CEO: TikTok should not provide Chinese authorities with the data of Americans

WASHINGTON, Feb 16 – PRIME TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi said the company should not provide U.S. user data to the Chinese government if asked to do so because the data is “subject to U.S. law.” 

“Even if they (government – ed.) asked, we believe that we should not provide them (data – ed.), because US user data is subject to US law,” Zhou said in an interview with the Washington Post. .

He stated that the Chinese government has never asked for US users’ data.

There are more than 100 million TikTok users in the US, he said, and it would be “very disappointing” if users around the world “can no longer hear them.”

In late January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zhou Shouzi had agreed to appear before a committee of the US House of Representatives in March. It was noted that Zhou voluntarily agreed to take part in the hearings, he will be the only speaker at them. The committee later confirmed a March hearing with Zhou, who, according to the statement, will speak about “TikTok’s practices regarding user privacy and consumer data security, the platform’s impact on children, and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.”

In 2020, the administration of US President Donald Trump attempted to ban Chinese social platforms TikTok and WeChat in the US in order to protect the privacy of Americans. The PRC and the companies themselves denied allegations of misuse of user data. After the ban was challenged in court, the Biden administration did not continue to fight for the implementation of the predecessors’ initiative. Recently, however, accusations against the company have been renewed. Earlier in December, the governor of Texas banned state officials from using the social network TikTok. A number of other US states, including Alabama, North and South Dakota and others, have also banned officials from using TikTok on government devices due to cybersecurity concerns.

TikTok is a short video creation and viewing application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Launched in 2018, it has become the leader in the short video app segment in China and is gaining popularity around the world.