TikTok's chief Alex Zhu is on a mission to prove it is not a menace

The head of the Chinese-owned viral video app is trying to assuage Washington's fears. "I am quite optimistic," he said

Like almost everybody who runs a big tech company these days, Alex Zhu, the head of the of-the-moment video app TikTok, is worried about an image problem.

To him — and to millions of TikTok’s users — the app is a haven for creativity, earnest self-expression and silly dance videos. In almost no time, TikTok has emerged as the refreshing weirdo upstart of the American social media landscape, reconfiguring the culture in its joyful, strange wake.

But to some people in the United States government, TikTok is a menace. And one big reason is the nationality of its owner, a