Chew Shou Zi

All eyes will be on Mr Chew when he testifies before US Congress, in what some are already calling an impossible task to sway Washington's minds on the ...

"Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country," Mr Chew will say. “But I remain fundamentally concerned that TikTok, as a Chinese-owned company, is subject to dictates from the Chinese Communist party and poses an unacceptable risk to US national security.” "It was just a more honest exchange than any I've had with the other American CEOs." He has the necessary tech executive credentials to lead TikTok,” he added. "It may be unrealistic and difficult to expect Mr Chew to be a bridge between China and the US," said Mr Faizal, the researcher. Mr Capri said that the TikTok chief being Singaporean would "certainly translate" into a less confrontational atmosphere in the congressional hearings, compared with an exchange between a Chinese national and China hawks sitting on the US committee. According to a written testimony posted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr Chew will say on Thursday that TikTok - with its more than 150 million American users - has never and would never share US user data with the Chinese government. But Mr Capri, the lecturer, pointed out that under China’s national security laws, TikTok and Bytedance, like any Chinese company, are required to turn over data to the Chinese government. "But Mr Chew's nationality won't have any effect on the fundamental issue facing TikTok, which is widespread mistrust and fears about data security and privacy when it comes to a Chinese company." The sources told the paper that Mr Chew straddles the Western and Chinese business worlds, with his country of origin Singapore offering a hedge against any potential crackdown from China or the US. “Mr Chew's role can be viewed as symbolic and non-confrontational,” said Mr Alex Capri, a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation and senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore's Business School. With the backdrop of US-China tensions providing further bipartisan opposition to the hugely popular short video platform, Mr Chew will likely face intense interrogation when he takes the stand to testify in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The social media app's boss is not nearly as well-known as tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk. Here's how Shou Zi Chew went from Facebook intern ...

[corporate structure](https://fortune.com/2023/03/21/bytedance-corporate-structure-tiktok-ceo-testimony-china/) in three years, posting a chart to its website this month that maps out the separation between the various divisions of the organization. [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-11-16/in-conversation-with-shou-chew), the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/exclusive-tiktoks-ceo-on-the-apps-future-in-the-us/533a1bc7-c308-44a2-992d-5e0087b132ab), and others. At the New York Times’ [Dealbook Summit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE5Pcz99JFI) in November, Chew discussed Project Texas, which sets up a new subsidiary called TikTok U.S. [Xiaomi](https://fortune.com/company/xiaomi/), and then joined his old friends at ByteDance in March 2021 as chief financial officer. The job kept him in London for a couple more years and led to an introduction to DST Investment Management, the firm that was an early investor in Facebook. joining a few other countries in banning TikTok on government devices, and Senate intelligence chair Mark Warner proposing the Restrict Act, which would enable the US commerce secretary to ban TikTok and any other tech from nations considered a national security threat. That led to a meeting with the founding team of ByteDance and TikTok. [a Congressional hearing about TikTok’s ties to China,](https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/tik-tok-ceo-to-testify-at-energy-and-commerce-committee) where its parent company ByteDance is based, and about the app’s data and privacy practices. That desire led him to the University College London, where, upon graduating, he felt lost about what he wanted his next steps to be and told graduates in is one of the few topics in Washington that has bipartisan support these days, and the Biden administration is [reportedly seeking to force ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok](https://fortune.com/2023/03/15/tiktok-china-owners-sell-stakes-us-ban-cfius/) or see the app banned in the U.S. He asked users to share what they love about TikTok and the value it brings to their lives. While there is a smattering of work-related videos, like the company’s office in Los Angeles or his visit to the NBA All Star Tech Summit, he’s also posted his visit to the British Museum, a meal of chicken and fries in Nashville, and his excitement over seeing Rihanna perform at the Super Bowl.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress this week as officials share security concerns about the Chinese-owned app. He's 40 years old, ...

Mr Chew Shou Zhi joined ByteDance as CFO in March 2021 before being appointed TikTok's chief executive in May the same year. PHOTO: AFP.

In February 2022, Mr Chew set up his own TikTok account, @shou.time. Under his leadership, TikTok became one of the biggest Chinese technology success stories in the world. Born and bred in Singapore, Mr Chew is fluent in English and Mandarin. “We want the leadership of HBS to decide where to allocate our contributions. In May that year, he was appointed TikTok’s chief executive. Facebook went public in mid-2012.

Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is currently in the spotlight amid growing scepticism of the Chinese app around the world. The app is currently running the ...

On Tuesday, Chew personally addressed US users in a TikTok video, drawing their attention to the potential ban. The company claims that the procedures represent an unprecedented effort to reassure Americans that their data is secure. to independently monitor against any intervention from Beijing as part of a billion-dollar investment plan to separate the app from its Chinese owners, reported the Wall Street Journal. He has worked the media circuit, sharing in interviews his love of golf and admiration for comic Kevin Hart. While completing his military conscription, he held the honourable position of officer in Singapore's armed services. The app is running the risk of being banned across the United States.

TikTok's Shou Zi Chew will be seated before a committee of 52 lawmakers when he appears Thursday in his first-ever congressional testimony.

Shou Zi Chew, 40, a Singaporean and ex-Facebook intern who is the public face of the popular but controversial app TikTok, will testify before Congress ...

He has called on lawmakers to push for industry-wide regulations that would hold TikTok and its American rivals to the same set of rules. businesses used that app and that the company had 7,000 employees in the United States. However, this has not been enough to assuage fears that Chew and TikTok are ultimately answerable to ByteDance in Beijing. public broadcaster BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65008599) and Denmark’s public broadcaster have also advised staff to delete TikTok from corporate phones over privacy concerns. Chew has been involved in a user data to the Chinese government, and that it would not do so if asked. user data on servers in the United States and Singapore, that it has not been asked to provide U.S. Chew was born and raised in Singapore, the island nation in Southeast Asia that has become a prominent bridge for international business between China and the West. After completing Harvard Business School, he worked with DST Global as a partner, where he helped to coordinate one of the earliest investments in ByteDance by building relationships with its two young founding engineers, Liang Rubo and Zhang Yiming. Biden administration officials, [like Trump appointees](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/16/biden-tiktok-ban-trump/?itid=lk_inline_manual_15&itid=lk_inline_manual_29) before them, have argued that TikTok should be sold to a U.S. [telling his fellow graduates](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKSA4rnUcb4): “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do or where life would take me. Chew’s internship was with Facebook, the then-ascendant social network that is now a bitter competitor to TikTok.

App's future in doubt as Biden administration threatens to ban it entirely in the country – follow all the latest.

To address the lawmakers’ national security concerns, Chew is talking about Project Texas – an effort to move all US data to domestic servers. “A company where you previously served as CFO and where you regularly communicate with the CEO.” Eshoo is not satisfied: “How can you promise the data will move to the US and be protected here?” He has tried this strategy before in a letter to lawmakers when he first took over the company. Pallone said that he’s not his point: He knows all tech companies collect data he doesn’t think they should and wants to see if Tiktok would commit to being a good actor and stop collecting data. Chew refuses to share it because the company is private and thus its financials are also private. “My concern here is primarily about the privacy issue the fact that TikTok is making all kinds of money by gathering private information about Americans … The content in Chase’s “For You” page wasn’t a window to discovery…instead his “For You” page was sadly a window to discover suicide. He reiterated that the efforts to protect user data through Project Texas is more than any other company has done. “I think this is a blatant display of how vulnerable people who use TikTok are, you couldn’t take action after 41 days when a clear threat, a very violent threat to the chair woman of this committee and the members of this committee was posted on your platform,” Cammack said. Chew said in the past, yes but with Project Texas that would no longer be the case. Chew said the company was the first to implement the 60-minute watch limit and also prohibits users under 16 to use direct messages.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, which has prompted concerns that the app could share sensitive data from American users with the ...

Mr. During business school, Mr. Chew has been on a global charm offensive](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/technology/tiktok-bytedance-data-security.html) to try to convince governments that TikTok protects the privacy of users and is not influenced by China’s communist leaders. Chew was asked to bring financial discipline to the company and to map out a path to profitability. He studied economics at the University College London. And he has emphasized that he lives in Singapore with his wife and two children.

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew has mostly kept a low profile since taking the job in 2021 but on Thursday he is testifying before U.S. lawmakers, ...

TikTok pointedly said in a letter to lawmakers last year that Chew was not from China and that the company is independent of ByteDance. He emphasized in videos that it is a showcase for creators and that 5 million U.S. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew has mostly kept a low profile since taking the job in 2021 but on Thursday he is testifying before U.S.

Shou Zi Chew, TikTok's chief executive, is in Washington this week to try to convince members of the US Congress that the app does not pose a threat to the ...

By comparison, Khabane Lame, the most followed person on TikTok, has 155.7 million followers. During his tenure he helped the company make its public debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018. Despite being the chief executive of one of the most used social media apps in the world, Mr Chew maintains a relatively low profile. Yiming Zhang, ByteDance's founder and chief executive, said in a statement at the time that Mr Chew “brings deep knowledge of the company and industry”, citing Mr Chew's involvement as one of TikTok's earliest investors. He was also one of the earliest backers of TikTok, The Independent reported, investing in the company in 2013. [TikTok](https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/03/17/tiktok-banned-uk/)'s chief executive, is in Washington this week to try to convince members of the [US Congress that the app does not pose a threat](https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2023/03/23/tiktok-ceo-shou-zi-chew-congress-china/) to the country's national security.

Both Republicans and Democrats expressed deep skepticism that the company won't share U.S. user data with the Chinese government while questioning Chew.

Lawmakers went on to reprimand the CEO over the safety of children, misinformation and targeted advertising. "You have repeatedly used the word transparency throughout this hearing," Palmer said. Chew admitted on Thursday that until Project Texas is complete, Beijing-based employees of TikTok would still be able to access U.S. They also said the app promotes misinformation like antivaccine advice and voter suppression campaigns. But, under the restructuring, the digital firewall would prevent Chinese employees from having access to Americans' personal information. The Biden administration told TikTok earlier this month that if its Chinese owners didn't sell their stakes in the app to a U.S. During the hearing, Chew was grilled about whether the app shares data with the Chinese government. Chew said TikTok does not promote or remove content at the request of Chinese authorities. They fear China's authoritarian regime could use the app to spy on, or blackmail, the millions of Americans who use it every day. TikTok offered an alternative it's currently working on, called "Project Texas." In this scenario, the Chinese government couldn't access the data and it would be overseen by Oracle. journalists who were reporting on company leaks — an incident now being investigated by Justice Department, [according to Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/03/16/fbi-doj-investigating-bytedance-tiktok-surveillance-journalists/).

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew has mostly kept a low profile since taking the job in 2021 but on Thursday he is testifying before U.S. lawmakers, ...

He emphasized in videos that it is a showcase for creators and that 5 million U.S. TikTok pointedly said in a letter to lawmakers last year that Chew was not from China and that the company is independent of ByteDance. Chew has told media that TikTok does not threaten U.S. "This comes at a pivotal moment for us. The administration of U.S. lawmakers](/technology/tiktok-ceo-face-tough-questions-support-us-ban-grows-2023-03-23/), many of them suspicious of the popular Chinese-owned social media app.

TikTok's chief executive will face tough questions from lawmakers on Thursday who are convinced the Chinese-owned short video app should be barred for being ...

"Why the hysteria and the panic and the targeting of TikTok?" Last week, TikTok said President Joe Biden's administration demanded its Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a potential ban. "Let's do the right thing here - comprehensive social media reform as it relates to privacy and security." Some political experts say a TikTok ban could be damaging to Democrats who have used the platform to reach younger voters. The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing will be chaired by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who says she is unconvinced by TikTok's security commitments. user data would be shared with the Chinese government and that it fails to adequately protect children from harm.

Chew's assurances about TikTok's efforts to ensure data privacy and monitor content largely fall on deaf ears amid hostile questioning.

TikTok executive seeks to push back on legislators' claims that the Chinese-based app poses a national security threat.

“You’ve actually done something that in the last three to four years has not happened except for the exception of maybe Vladimir Putin. “If you use our app, you can go on it expressing content on that topic and many others.” You have unified Republicans and Democrats” Chew responded that TikTok employs 40,000 moderators to track harmful content, as well as an algorithm to flag controversial material. “We do work very hard.” For his part, Chew sought to portray the app, which has 150 million monthly users in the US, as “a place where people can be creative and curious”. Legislators also turned to broader social media issues, questioning TikTok’s ability to moderate misinformation, harmful messaging and content that is not age appropriate. “We stand for freedom and transparency, and we don’t want your project.” She noted the post had been on the app since February 10. Chew dismissed allegations that TikTok posed a national security threat. [#TikTok]’s Beijing Communist-based ownership and its popularity exacerbates its dangers to our country and our privacy. “Please rename your project.

The TikTok CEO, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Harvard grad, is on the hot seat as lawmakers consider banning the app.

Chew told the House panel that TikTok is building "what amounts to a firewall that seals off protected U.S. data and potential manipulation of the TikTok U.S. "Only vetted personnel operating in a new company, called TikTok U.S. user data from unauthorized foreign access," including the establishment of a new corporate entity to oversee the handling of U.S. National security experts have warned that TikTok, which has 150 million American users, could be used to spy on Americans or as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government. He was considered a good fit for TikTok because of his background in investment banking and his time at Facebook and DST Global, said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. Most Americans likely first heard of Chew when he released a video this week speaking directly to TikTok's U.S. ByteDance said in a statement that it "strongly condemned" the actions of those involved and they were no longer employed by the company. ecosystem." However, TikTok's status as a Chinese-owned company makes some national-security experts nervous. Chew reports to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo. Chew, born in January 1983 in Singapore, completed mandatory military service for the Singaporean government as a teenager.