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The US Congress is going to question the TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew. The TikTok video-sharing platform is massively popular around the world, but the fact that it’s Chinese-owned – through the ByteDance company – makes some American politicians very nervous.

The app is accused of posing a national security risk through data gathered from millions of users. The US government says TikTok should be sold or else face a possible ban in the country. TikTok says it has undertaken an effort to move all US-based data to the country as part of an initiative it calls Project Texas. So why are US officials so concerned?

Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Newsday he is deeply concerned about all large unregulated platforms including TikTok.

"TikTok... is owned by ByteDance [which] is subject to the dictates of Beijing. The American people have never had a negotiation with it about what their privacy interests are. Beijing [says] Tik Tok represents digital opium and they're not subjecting their people to it."

(Pic: TikTok creators speak out in support of TikTok at the United States Capitol in Washington; Credit: Reuters)

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