TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told lawmakers on Thursday that some U.S. user data may still be accessible for ByteDance employees.

India banned TikTok in 2020

The short video app currently has about 150 million active users in the United States.

Still, Jacob Helberg – Senior Advisor for the Stanford University does not see meaningful repercussions even if the U.S. executes a ban on TikTok. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, he said:

India banned over 400 Chinese software applications and the sky didn’t fall and the world kept turning. India is growing at 9.0% so they’re doing great.

The jury is still out on whether the short video hosting service will face a ban in the United States. But following CEO Chew’s hours-long testimony before Congress on Thursday, it’s evident beyond doubt that lawmakers aren’t satisfied with TikTok and its ties to China.

Is TikTok too big to ban?

Remember that CEO Chew did confirm in his testimony that ByteDance employees will lose access to U.S. data once the company’s risk mitigation plan – Project Texas was complete. Still, the United States wants ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok for the app to avoid a ban.

On Thursday, though, Chinese Commerce Ministry confirmed that it’s not okay with such a forced sale – an announcement that, as per Helberg, shows how deeply the country cares about the said platform. He added:

TikTok collects data [also] from users on your phone, a whole another level of invasiveness. A big question up for debate yesterday was is TikTok too big to ban? I think ultimately members of the House overwhelmingly said that it’s not.

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