TikTok rejected the reports that President Biden’s administration wanted it and its Chinese owners to sell the popular video-sharing app.
In a statement, TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said: “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.”
The Wall Street Journal report cited people familiar with the matter as saying that The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. threatened a ban on the app unless ByteDance Ltd., its Beijing-based owners, divested.
Meanwhile, laws have already been passed to restrict government agencies from using TikTok while lawmakers push legislation to give more power to clamp down on it further.
Despite these concerns over potential control of user data by Beijing, TikTok remains extremely popular among teens in America.
The company is also taking steps to bring in security and data privacy plans as part of a national security review conducted by the Biden administration.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
