An in-house attorney at Microsoft Corp. will become the first global general counsel of TikTok Inc. later this month, the company announced on Friday.

Erich Andersen will become TikTok's first global general counsel. He will begin on Jan. 27 and will be based in the company's New York offices. He will report directly to TikTok president Alex Zhu.

"In just a handful of years, TikTok has become one of the world's most dynamic internet platforms, inspiring creativity and bringing joy to millions of users worldwide. I look forward to tackling the various and ever-evolving issues that TikTok and the entire industry face," Andersen said in the press release.

Andersen was not available for additional comment on Friday.

Andersen has spent most of his career working in-house at Microsoft. He joined the software company in 1995 and has held such roles as associate general counsel and deputy general counsel. Most recently, Andersen served as corporate vice president and chief intellectual property counsel. He previously worked as an attorney for Davis Wright Tremaine and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles Law School in 1989.

"Today's announcement marks TikTok's latest move in building out our global expertise in key areas such as compliance and IP protection. Erich is uniquely qualified to lead those efforts, building upon the strengths of our current legal team. His deep experience is an excellent asset as we work to further build trust with regulators, policymakers, users and partners," Zhu said in the press release.

The hiring of Andersen is a sign the company is focused on building compliance. Earlier this month, the company added Cormac Keenan to lead its Trust and Safety Hub for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in Dublin, Ireland.

Andersen's appointment as global general counsel comes at a time when TikTok has been constantly criticized by American politicians as a threat to national security. In October, Sens. Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to the director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, asking the intelligence community to conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok.

"TikTok's terms of service and privacy policies describe how it collects data from its users and their devices, including user content and communications, IP address, location-related data, device identifiers, cookies, metadata, and other sensitive personal information," the letter says. "While the company has stated that TikTok does not operate in China and stores U.S. user data in the U.S., ByteDance [TikTok's parent company in Beijing] is still required to adhere to the laws of China."

To combat these accusations, the company published its first transparency report earlier this month showing the number of requests for information it received from different countries it operates in. The report noted that Chinese authorities did not make any requests to remove or restrict any TikTok accounts.

In a blog post announcing the first transparency report, Eric Ebenstein, a public policy attorney at the company, said TikTok will continue to release transparency reports going forward.

"We believe it is incumbent upon us to provide clear information for each market to show how we balance cooperation with legal requests and protection of user rights," Ebenstein said.

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