Sen. Marco Rubio is asking the US government to investigate TikTok over claims it’s censoring content that might upset China

TikTok, essentially, doesn’t exist in China: Instead, ByteDance operates a similar app there called Douyin, while TikTok operates in international markets outside of the country.

In response to Rubio’s call to review TikTok, a TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider that the Chinese government does not request the platform censors content, and that it doesn’t have the “jurisdiction” to do so since TikTok doesn’t operate in China.

“TikTok US is localized, adheres to US laws, and stores all US user data in the US,” the TikTok spokesperson said. “Our content and moderation policies are led by our US-based team and are not influenced by any foreign government.”

The statement did not address, however, whether the US-based team’s moderation decisions are influenced by its China-based parent company, ByteDance.

The Guardian’s recent report about TikTok’s moderation guidelines has brought into question how TikTok is suppressing and censoring “highly controversial topics” likely to anger the Chinese government. That’s on top of reports from early September that while social media was flooded with images and posts about the massive protests taking place in Hong Kong, TikTok was suspiciously devoid of content showing unrest.