TikTok CEO Shou Chew Defiant as U.S. Lawmakers Doubt Safety Assurances

(Bloomberg) — TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew defended his company against a barrage of criticism from hostile U.S. lawmakers, repeatedly asserting the app’s independence from its Chinese owners.

Chew said TikTok’s Beijing-based owner, ByteDance Ltd., is mostly owned by international investors, and most of its board members are American.

“The bottom line is this is American data on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,” Chew said in an appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He could not unequivocally say that no ByteDance employees have access to the data, saying rather that he’s “seen no evidence” of that happening.