Once upon a time, now-CEO of TikTok Shou Chew was an intern at Facebook.

While he had humble beginnings at Meta, Chew has led TikTok since 2021 and was at the helm when the app became the world’s most downloaded, with 672 million downloads.

Congressional hearings are being held as Congress addresses what they claim are security concerns over the Beijing-owned parent company of TikTok, ByteDance.

Chew sat through the hearings to defend his company, saying at one point, “We are committed to [being] very transparent with our users about what we collect.” He added, “I don’t believe what we collect is more than most players in the industry.”

While Facebook currently has 2.9 billion active users, TikTok is hot on their heels with 1 billion monthly users back in 2021 – and climbing.

While speaking with Congress, Chew referenced Meta and other social media companies when he said that they have “tried to learn the lesson of companies that have come before us” and suggested that lawmakers focus on industry-wide safety concerns. “The potential security, privacy, content manipulation concerns raised about TikTok are really not unique to us. The same issues apply to other companies. We believe what’s needed are clear transparent rules that apply broadly to all tech companies. Ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns.”