TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, has insisted it's impossible for them to access user data from the app.
TikTok
Despite President Donald Trump's administration claiming the Chinese-owned platform poses a national security threat, ByteDance's global chief security officer, Roland Cloutier, insisted that if they wanted to get their hands on data that would require them to go through the US government as TikTok's servers are in America.
Therefore, the Chinese government has no power over it.
In an interview with Cyberscoop, Cloutier said: "We have very specific processes when law enforcement or government agencies were to ask us for things, and because we sit in the United States, it would have to go through the US government.
TikTok has repeatedly said it stores all its data on servers in the US, with backups in Singapore.
We simply don't share data with governments, including the Chinese government."
TikTok is currently in the process of suing Trump's Administration, and was dealt another blow when Kevin Mayer quit the app amid their battle to remain in the US.
The former Disney executive has stepped down from the job just six months after joining the video sharing platform.
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed this week: "We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin's role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision.
"We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well."
Mayer reportedly announced his exit in an email obtained by the Financial Times, in which he claimed the current "political environment" made him decide it was best for him to resign.
TikTok's general manager Vanessa Pappas will replace him in the interim.
In their lawsuit, TikTok has stated that the world leader's stance against them is unjust and has nothing to do with Trump's allegations that ByteDance is a threat to security.
ByteDance said in a statement: "The Executive Order issued by the Administration . . . has the potential to strip the rights of that community without any evidence to justify such an extreme action, and without any due process.
"We strongly disagree with the Administration's position that TikTok is a national security threat and we have articulated these objections previously."
The firm further claimed Trump's Administration ignored TikTok's attempt to address the issues "in good faith" with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.
They continued: "Now is the time for us to act. We do not take suing the government lightly, however we feel we have no choice but to take action to protect our rights, and the rights of our community and employees. In our complaint we make clear that we believe the Administration ignored our extensive efforts to address its concerns, which we conducted fully and in good faith even as we disagreed."
ByteDance believes the government's issues with the app "is not rooted in bona fide national security concerns".
Trump has given the company an extended deadline, until November 12, to sell TikTok to an American firm, or face having the app banned from the country.
The likes of Microsoft, Oracle, and Twitter have expressed an interest in purchasing the app.
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