TikTok's CEO reached out to users in hopes of convincing them that a national ban on the app would not be in their interest, a gesture made days before his scheduled appearance before Congress.

CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video on Tuesday featuring him somewhere in Washington, D.C. The executive of the China-affiliated app disclosed that the app has 150 million monthly active users in the United States and 7,000 employees. Chew also spoke about the importance of TikTok to Americans, then asked users to post in the comments what they wanted their representatives to know about why they love TikTok. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to hear Chew's testimony on Thursday.

"This comes at a pivotal moment for us," Chew told users, alluding to several efforts by Congress to ban the app. "This could take TikTok away from all 150 million of you."

TikTok had previously reported 100 million monthly active users in 2021. Chew's latest number suggests the app's market presence has grown quickly.

Congress has fixated on TikTok over claims that its parent company, ByteDance, shares U.S. data with the Chinese Communist Party, based on Chinese national security laws. ByteDance claims it has not shared such data.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interdepartmental agency that reviews U.S. sanctions with international businesses, demanded that Chinese parent company ByteDance sell its stake in TikTok or risk being banned.

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Members of Congress have put forward several measures to restrict TikTok in the U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has written a bill to ban the app outright, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) has introduced legislation to provide extra powers to the Commerce Department to analyze and determine if select business deals are security risks.