TikTok’s CEO claims the social media giant is free from ‘manipulation’ by communist Beijing after House vote – as Biden administration urges Senate to act quickly to force app to split of Chinese owners

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded — in the form of a TikTok clip — after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a legislature that could ban the platform in the United States.

The House voted 352-65 on Wednesday, with representatives from both sides of the aisle joining together to pass the bill. It now heads to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future.

Politicians have long raised concerns about TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing and is believed to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the bill, which would force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or be banned from app stores and web hosting services.

Chew, 41, released a video on the official TikTok account on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday evening. The CEO introduced himself by his first name before beginning his prepared remarks.

“I just wanted to share some thoughts with our US users on the disappointing vote in the House of Representatives,” he said. “There has been a lot of misinformation and I hope to clear some things up.”

He thanked the platform’s 1.7 billion-member community for “making (their) voices heard.” As of March 2023, there were at least 150 million users based in the United States, although that number is now estimated at around 170 million.

‘Over the past years we have invested in keeping your data safe and our platform free from outside manipulation. We have committed to that and we will continue to do so,” Chew continued.

Whistleblowers within the company, most notably former ByteDance employee Yintao Yu, have previously raised alarms about its lax data privacy.

Yu, who served as head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S. operations between August 2017 and November 2018, sued the company in May 2023.

In the complaint, he alleged that a group of CCP members nicknamed “The Committee” was installed in offices in Beijing and could view all data collected by the company, including data from the United States.

In 2022, TikTok announced Project Texas, an unprecedented initiative to store all US user data on servers in the country.

In June of that year, the platform reported that all US user traffic was being redirected to its cloud infrastructure in the United States.

TikTok also announced that it would also delete “historically protected user data” in data centers in both Virginia and Singapore.

Lawmakers and intelligence officials have spoken out about concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data.

Their fears are fueled by a series of Chinese national security laws that force organizations to comply with intelligence gathering practices.

TikTok has repeatedly denied the sharing US user data to Chinese authorities and insists they will not do so even if asked.

FBI Director Christopher Wray appealed to members of the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, calling the CCP “the defining threat of our generation.”

“Americans need to ask themselves whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control access to their data, whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control the information they get through the recommendation algorithm,” he said.

Last year, researchers at Rutgers University’s Network Contagion Research Institute assessed a “strong possibility” that TikTok promotes and demotes certain topics based on the Chinese government’s preferences.

The researchers suspected that the algorithm manipulated discourse not only on topics specific to China, but also on strategically important topics such as the wars in it Ukraine and Israel.

The focus of Wednesday’s vote, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, is not the first attempt to ban the app in the United States.

Former President Donald Trump tried to ban the video-sharing platform through an executive order in 2020. This attempt failed after TikTok filed a lawsuit and was ultimately blocked by the courts.

“This legislation, if signed into law, will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States,” Chew said in the message on Wednesday. “Even the bill’s sponsors admit this is their goal.”

He added that the bill “gives more power to a handful of other social media companies,” but did not mention them by name.

“It will also take billions of dollars out of the pockets of makers and small businesses,” Chew continued. “It will put more than 300,000 American jobs at risk and it will take away your TikTok.”

Addressing the users themselves, he continued: “We will not stop advocating for you and we will continue to do everything we can, including exercising our legal rights, to build this great platform that we have together with you built, to protect.’

He ended the video by urging users to continue sharing their voices with those around them, including their senators.

Chew and executives from other tech companies such as Meta and Snap testified before U.S. lawmakers last month on the topic of online child safety.

During the hearing, Chew was questioned about his nationality and possible connections to the CCP by Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas.

“You said today, as you often say, that you live in Singapore. Of which country are you a citizen?’ Cotton asked.

Chew repeatedly confirmed that he was Singaporean, even referring to his mandatory two-year service in the country’s military.

When Cotton Chew even asked if he was a member of the CCP, the CEO replied, “Senator, I am Singaporean. No.’

If the bill were to pass the Senate and be signed into law, TikTok would lose a substantial portion of its advertising market.

A 2022 study from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health found that the app generated $2 billion in ad revenue from users aged 13 to 17 in the United States alone.

Although the bill received overwhelming support during Wednesday’s vote, critics were quick to voice their opposition.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, denounced the Legislature as “bad policy” in a tweet.

“We need to create real standards and regulations around privacy violations at social media companies — not target platforms we don’t like,” she wrote.

Advocates and content creators flocked to the Capitol ahead of the vote. Some held signs that read, “TikTok has changed my life for the better.”

TikTok itself also issued a statement opposing the vote.

“This process was secret and the bill was blocked for one reason: it is a ban,” spokesman Alex Haurek said in a statement.

“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy, on seven million small businesses and on the 170 million Americans who use our service.”