TikTok said on Monday that the short-video sharing app now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from the 100 million it said it had in 2020.
The Chinese app confirmed the figure ahead of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.
On Friday, six more US senators backed bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban TikTok on national security grounds. TikTok said last week that the Biden administration demanded that its Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or it could face a US ban.
TikTok said in September 2021 that it had more than 1 billion monthly users.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, who is cosponsoring legislation to give the administration more powers to ban TikTok, said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast that he did not think TikTok US data was safe.
The idea that the data can be made safe under Chinese Communist Party law doesn't pass the smell test. TikTok said it spent more than 1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts, rejected spying allegations and said if protecting national security is the objective, a change in ownership wouldn't impose any new restrictions on data flows or access. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Bloomberg News that there could be political ramifications to banning TikTok. She said the politician in me thinks you're going to lose every voter under 35, forever.
Some TikTok content creators will come to Washington this week to make the case why the app should not be banned.