TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew insists that the video app is not an agent of China.

Members in the House of Representatives who believed TikTok was a "tool" of the Chinese Communist Party subjected Shou Zi Chew to hours of difficult interrogation. The CEO of TikTok has made an effort to reassure the US Congress that the Chinese-grant video app is not "a spy" of Beijing and does not endanger the country's security.

Deputies in the House of Representatives, who were persuaded that the well-known app is a "tool" of the Chinese Communist Party, interrogated Shou Zi Chew for hours. Other people are also worried that TikTok, which has 150 million US users, contains material that could harm young people's mental health.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce members questioned Mr. Chew on various issues, including the company's eavesdropping on journalists and TikTok's methods for content moderation.

The committee's chair, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, told Mr. Chew, "You are here due to the American people wanting to know the truth about the threat TikTok presents to our national and personal security." TikTok has continually gone down a path that leads to increased surveillance, control, and manipulation.

Mr. Chew emphasized that ByteDance, the app's parent business, places a high priority on the safety of its young users and refuted assertions that the app poses a threat to national security. Unambiguously, he said, "ByteDance is not an agency of China or any other country.

He reaffirmed the company's intention to safeguard US user data by putting it on servers run and controlled by the world's largest server manufacturer, Oracle. Many committee members deemed Mr. Chew's responses evasive; Tony Cardenas, one of them, described the chief executive as "a terrific dancer with words."

Rising demands and prohibitions

TikTok's security and data privacy have come under growing scrutiny due to worries that it could be used to spread pro-Beijing ideologies or collect user data, both of which TikTok vehemently denies. The app will be restricted from the UK's devices and network parliament.

Due to worries about potential cyberattacks, the US Congress, the EU Commission, and more than half of the US states have already passed legislation banning staff phones. The UK government last week followed suit.

China declared it would resist American efforts to pressure ByteDance into selling the app.