Shou Zi Chew will testify before the U.S. House committee on energy and commerce on Thursday. In a written statement published beforehand, he said TikTok has set up a subsidiary to run the U.S. version of the short-video app. He also said it’s “emphatically untrue” that TikTok “shares information about U.S. users with the Chinese government.” (The Logic)

Talking point: Chew is trying to convince U.S. lawmakers that forcing parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok—as the Biden administration has reportedly pushed it to do—won’t change anything about the way it handles data, their ostensible concern. With more governments and politicians deleting the app and considering making their populations follow, the firm is mounting a major lobbying and public-relations push. TikTok has sent some creators to Washington to accompany its executives to lawmaker meetings. And Chew—routinely introduced with the descriptor “unknown” or “low-key”—has stepped into the spotlight in recent months. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian both published profiles of the TikTok CEO.