we begin in the us, where time is ticking for tiktok. the chief of the social media app shou zi chew was grilled by us lawmakers over a range of issues, mostly related to the company s chinese ownership. his appearance before the congressional committee comes after the biden administration threatened to ban the social media app if the company s chinese owners didn t sell their stakes. tiktok is wildly popular in the states it has 150 million american users, which includes almost five million businesses. well, our north america business correspondent michelle fleury has been following the story in washington dc and sent this report. it was never going to be easy but from it was never going to be easy but from the moment the committee chairman opened the hearing. committee chairman opened the hearing, calling for tiktok to be banned in the united states, there be banned in the united states, there was be banned in the united states, there was no let up. the tiktok ceo
ceo there was no let up. the tiktok ceo was there was no let up. the tiktok ceo was bombarded by lawmakers worried ceo was bombarded by lawmakers worried that the chinese ownership of the app makes it unchosen ownership of the app makes it unchosen with the and that it is harmful to american teenagers. makes it untrustworthy. politicians of all stripes stand slammed tiktok all stripes stand slammed tiktok. , ., ., tiktok. they are engaged in psychological tiktok. they are engaged in psychological warfare - tiktok. they are engaged in i psychological warfare through tiktok to deliberately influence us children. out of the gate singaporean boss of tiktok thought the pushback against this characterisation. we also want to talk about national security concerns that you have raised and we take very, very seriously. let me start by addressing a few misconceptions about bytedance of which we are a subsidiarity. bytedance is not owned nor controlled by the chinese government.