Social media company TikTok says they plan on hiring around 10,000 people in the U.S. over the next three years, according to multiple outlets. The announcement comes after lawmakers and Trump administration officials have questioned the company’s data collection methods and threatened to ban TikTok.
TikTok currently employs about 1,400 people in the U.S., a huge increase already over the 500 employees they had on January 1, 2020, according to Axios.
"These are good-paying jobs that will help us continue to build a fun and safe experience and protect our community's privacy," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN. The jobs will range from customer service, to content moderation to engineering.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. TikTok doesn’t operate in China, however ByteDance operates a similar app in China called Douyin.
Several lawmakers, including Chuck Schumer, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley have publicly said they worry TikTok user data could find its way to the Chinese government. CNN reports TikTok data from U.S. users is stored in the U.S. with a backup in Singapore.
The House voted this week to ban the TikTok app on government devices. In early July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration was looking at banning TikTok.
Axios reports TikTok’s hiring in the U.S. includes lobbyists who are trying to convince lawmakers they are not connected to the Chinese government.
No word when the new positions would be posted.