'Earnest and temperate: TikTok's Singaporean CEO's poise fails to sway sceptics in US Congress

With his hands folded on his lap, TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi was a picture of calm facing a sea of photojournalists snapping his picture in the 10 minutes before the start of Thursday's House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

- Charissa Yong

But as impassive as he was under fire, Mr Chew - whom the Washington Post described as "soft-spoken, earnest and temperate" during a heated hearing that lasted five hours - could not convince the congressmen that the social media app did not pose a national security threat to the United States.

The minds of the more than 50 congressmen who grilled the Singaporean CEO appeared mostly made up from the start. Many were vocally sceptical that TikTok was truly not beholden to Beijing, given its ownership by Chinese parent company Byte Dance.

The app, used by more than 150 million Americans, has been accused of being anything from a Chinese espionage tool to a method of indoctrinating children amid soaring US-China tensions, though lawmakers have not presented evidence of such occurrences.

"We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values," committee chairman Cathy Rodgers said in her opening statement, which she read out before posing questions to Mr Chew. "TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned." Mr Frank Pallone Jr, the committee's top Democrat, was dismissive of Mr Chew's characterisation of TikTok as performing a public service.

"I am not convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks that it poses to Americans in its present form," he said.