TikTok chief executive acknowledges it and other social media companies face ‘challenge’ in gaining trust as company faces US ban

The chief executive of TikTok, Chew Shou Zi, told a conference in Riyadh that the company is determined to earn trust in every market where it operates, but acknowledged this was a “challenge”.

The company is facing a ban in the US unless it is divested from its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance by January, over national security concerns related to the handling of users’ data and the way the company controls what users see.

As the social media industry faces more questions, “earning trust locally… is going to be a big challenge for us, all of us,” Chew said in a dialogue with Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute chief executive Richard Attias at an FII event in the Saudi Arabian capital.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be based on the things that you have done, [such as], did you fundamentally go address people’s concerns?”

‘Creativity and joy’

Chew emphasised TikTok’s mission to “inspire creativity and bring joy” and said the company stands out because of its algorithm, which highlights good content, as well as its focus on video in the smartphone era and its belief that everyone should be able to publish, according to a South China Morning Post report.

The company is embracing technology to stay ahead of fast changes in the social media industry while staying close to the interests of its “significantly larger than a billion” active user base worldwide.

The Singapore national, who has degrees from University College London and Harvard Business School, said the company keeps itself “fresh” by bringing in young talent and listening to good ideas.

Chew has been leading TikTok’s efforts to head off the US ban, filing a legal challenge to the April ban legislation a month after it was signed into law.

Legal challenge

ByteDance, TikTok and a group of US TikTok creators have been facing off against the Department of Justice before a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is expected to deliver a decision by December to allow time for a Supreme Court appeal.

This week another US city, the town of Liberty Hill in central Texas, voted this week to ban TikTok from official government devices, bringing the town into line with a similar action at the state government level.

The University of Texas at Austin has banned the app from school-issued devices, and those using the university’s Wi-Fi are banned from using the app on their personal devices, regulations similar to those found in several other US states as well as in the US federal government.

Similar measures have been passed by government bodies in other countries, including Canada, the UK and the EU.

Privately held ByteDance does not disclose financial data, but a Financial Times report in March said its global revenue surged 40 percent last year to $120 billion (£92bn) with revenues of $16bn in the US alone.

The company’s good fortunes pushed ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming, who is believed to hold about 20 percent of the company, to the top of a new China rich list published by the Hurun Institute.