The Biden administration has told Beijing-based ByteDance it needs to sell TikTok or the app will face a ban in the US.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S made the demand, according to the Wall Street Journal.
ByteDance argues that selling the shares wouldn’t address the security issues that the US Government is targeting.
“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access, ” TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement.
“The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.”
According to TikTok executives, 60 per cent of ByteDance shares are held by “global investors”, 20 per cent by employees, and 20 per cent by founders, including ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t confirm the threat, but acknowledged the US Government had “concerns with this particular app.”
“We want to make sure that the digital products and services Americans use every day are safe and secure,” Jean-Pierre said.
TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee next week to answer questions on the platform’s security issues.
