By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -TikTok said on Monday the short-video sharing app now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million it said it had in 2020.
The Chinese-owned app confirmed the figure ahead of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The app faces growing pressure from the President Joe Biden’s administration and lawmakers including calls to ban the app by many in Congress who fear its U.S. user data could be passed on to China’s government. TikTok said in September 2021 that globally it had more than 1 billion monthly users.
TikTok, owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, said content creators will come to Washington this week to make the case why the app should not be banned. “Lawmakers in Washington debating TikTok should hear firsthand from people whose lives would be directly affected by their decisions,” TikTok said.
On Friday, six more U.S. senators backed bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok on national security grounds. Last week, TikTok said the Biden administration demanded that its Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or it could face a U.S. ban.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
