The social media platform TikTok reached more than 150 million monthly active users in the United States, the company said on Monday, days before its CEO is set to testify.
The 50% jump in users of the video-sharing app suggests that more users have adopted it over the past three years despite national security concerns.
Pressure against the app continues to grow in Washington, with many lawmakers from both parties seeking to ban its use throughout the nation completely.
State governors and other government officials fear that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, poses a national security threat because the Chinese Communist Party can use the app to influence public opinion or gain access to sensitive user information.
"This notional idea that the data can be made safe under (Chinese Communist Party) law, just doesn't, doesn't pass the smell test," said Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner.
In December, President Joe Biden signed a spending bill banning TikTok from U.S. government devices. This month the White House backed a bipartisan Senate bill that seeks to give the Biden administration the power to restrict and ban the Chinese-owned social media platform.
The RESTRICT Act would give the Commerce Department the ability to restrict, and even ban, TikTok and other technologies if they are considered to pose national security risks, said the chair of the Intelligence Committee Democratic Senator Mark Warner.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to speak on Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in his first appearance before Congress.
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