According to corporate spokespeople, Washington has demanded that the Chinese proprietors of the app surrender their ownership.
According to officials of ByteDance, the business that created the platform, Washington has pressured TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell their holdings in the well-known video app or risk a possible US-wide ban.
According to Brooke Oberwetter, a representative for TikTok, the Beijing-based firm had received the ultimatum from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news first (CFIUS). It is officially entrusted with monitoring national security threats in international investments and is a division of the US Treasury Department.
ByteDance, a Beijing-based company launched in 2012, has noted that 60% of its shares are now owned by foreign investors, 20% by its staff, and 20% by its founders, who also hold a disproportionate amount of voting power.
Nonetheless, citing China’s national security law, which forces businesses to turn over customer data on request, Washington has expressed worry that TikTok’s American user data may eventually be given to the Chinese government. There are already over 100 million users of TikTok in the US.
Nonetheless, the business has emphasised that a forced sale would not significantly reduce the alleged security concern raised by the US. The WSJ quoted Oberwetter as saying, “If defending national security is the goal, divestiture doesn’t fix the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any additional constraints on data flows or access.
She emphasised that TikTok has already begun implementing a $1.5 billion security strategy designed particularly to protect American user data and content from access by or influence by the Chinese government, which, according to Oberwetter, is the “optimal method” to allay Washington’s worries.
The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, is scheduled to testify before the US Congress the next week, despite the White House and Treasury Department’s refusal to do so thus far.
China, on the other hand, has charged the US with misinformation campaigns and attempting to stifle TikTok. On Thursday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, told reporters that Washington has yet to present any proof that the video app poses a threat to US national security and that the justification of data security is being used to stifle international businesses.
Donald Trump, who was president at the time, attempted to outlaw TikTok in 2020, but the US courts rejected his efforts. But, the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month passed legislation giving President Joe Biden the authority to halt the app and other Chinese-owned social media sites that are thought to be security hazards. Before becoming law, that bill must now be approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
