“ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government,” Tik...

Let me start by addressing a few misconceptions about ByteDance, of which we are a subsidiary. ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It's a private company. 60% of the company is owned by global institutional investors, 20% is owned by the founder, and 20% owned by employees around the world. ByteDance has five board members, three of them are American. Now, TikTok itself is not available in mainland China. We're headquartered in Los Angeles and in Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the US today. Still, we have heard important concerns about the potential for unwanted foreign access to US data and potential manipulation of the TikTok US ecosystem. There are more than 150 million Americans who love our platform, and we know we have a responsibility to protect them, which is why I'm making the following commitments to you and to all our users. Number one, we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers, as a top priority for us. Number two, we will firewall protected US data from unwanted foreign access. Number three, TikTok will remain a place for free expression and will not be manipulated by any government. And fourth, we will be transparent and we will give access to third-party independent monitors to remain accountable for our commitments.