TikTok names new CEO

TikTok announced Friday that Shou Zi Chew, parent company ByteDance’s chief financial officer, will be the short-form video app’s new CEO.

Chew, who joined ByteDance last month, will stay on in his role at the Chinese company.

TikTok also announced that Vanessa Pappas will be the new chief operating officer after having served as the interim head since Kevin Mayer departed last year.

“The leadership team of Shou and Vanessa sets the stage for sustained growth,” ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming said in a statement.

The duo will face a series of challenges including questions over TikTok’s relationship to China and data privacy, especially for the children that use the app.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has introduced legislation to ban TikTok from federal devices, tweeted that hiring Chew was the company stopping “pretending it’s anything other than a Chinese company — with ties aplenty to Beijing.”

Former President Trump issued an executive order forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok on similar grounds about ties to China, although a deal has not materialized and the Biden administration has not signaled any intention to follow through on the order.

TikTok has repeatedly pushed back against concerns that it poses a threat due to ByteDance’s alleged connections to the Chinese government and data security concerns, and the company has taken steps to increase its security and privacy protections.