Testifying before the U.S. Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told lawmakers the company is building what he called a “firewall” that would seal off U.S. data from foreign access.

He said that TikTok is in the process of deleting legacy U.S. data from servers in Virginia and Singapore, which he expects to be completed by the end of the year.

Chew said he doesn’t believe ownership by the Chinese-based company ByteDance “is the issue here” and questioned the track record of American social media giants on data privacy.

“I mean look at Facebook – and Cambridge Analytica. Just one example,” he said.

Shou Zi Chew’s testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology.

TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or that it could be used to promote narratives favourable to the country’s Communist leaders.

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