TikTok Pushed by U.S. to Resolve National Security Concerns

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration desires TikTok’s Chinese language possession to promote the app or face a doable ban, TikTok stated on Wednesday, because the White Home hardens its stance towards resolving national security concerns concerning the standard video service.

The brand new demand to promote the app was delivered to TikTok in latest weeks, two individuals with information of the matter stated. TikTok is owned by the Chinese language web firm ByteDance.

The transfer is a major shift within the Biden administration’s place towards TikTok, which has been underneath scrutiny over fears that Beijing might request Individuals’ information from the app. The White Home had been trying to negotiate an agreement with TikTok that may apply new safeguards to its information and remove a necessity for ByteDance to promote its shares within the app.

However the demand for a sale — coupled with the White Home’s help for laws that may enable it to ban TikTok in the US — hardens the administration’s method. It harks again to the place of former President Donald J. Trump, who threatened to ban TikTok except it was bought to an American firm.

TikTok stated it was weighing its choices and was dissatisfied by the choice. The corporate stated its safety proposal, which includes storing Individuals’ information in the US, supplied the most effective safety for customers.

“If defending nationwide safety is the target, divestment doesn’t resolve the issue: A change in possession wouldn’t impose any new restrictions on information flows or entry,” Maureen Shanahan, a spokeswoman for TikTok, stated in a press release.

TikTok’s chief govt, Shou Zi Chew, is scheduled to testify earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee subsequent week. He’s anticipated to face questions concerning the app’s ties to China, in addition to considerations that it delivers dangerous content material to younger individuals.

A White Home spokeswoman declined to remark, as did a spokeswoman for the Treasury Division, which has led the negotiations with TikTok. The Justice Division additionally declined to remark. The demand for a sale was reported earlier by The Wall Avenue Journal.

TikTok, with 100 million U.S. customers, is on the middle of a battle between the Biden administration and the Chinese government over tech and financial management, in addition to nationwide safety. President Biden has waged a broad marketing campaign in opposition to China with monumental funding packages to extend home manufacturing of semiconductors, electrical autos and lithium batteries. The administration has additionally banned Chinese language telecommunications gear and restricted U.S. exports of chip-manufacturing gear to China.

The struggle over TikTok started in 2020 when Mr. Trump stated he would ban the app except ByteDance bought its stake to an American firm, a transfer really helpful by a bunch of federal businesses often known as the Committee on Overseas Funding in the US, or CFIUS.

The Trump administration finally appeared to reach a deal for ByteDance to promote a part of TikTok to Oracle, the U.S. cloud computing firm, and Walmart. However the potential transaction by no means got here to fruition.

CFIUS workers and TikTok continued to barter a deal that may enable the app to function in America. TikTok submitted a significant draft of an settlement — which TikTok has referred to as Challenge Texas — in August. Below the proposal, the corporate stated it might retailer information belonging to U.S. customers on server computer systems run by Oracle inside the US.

TikTok officers haven’t heard again from CFIUS officers since they submitted their proposal, the corporate stated.

In that vacuum, considerations concerning the app have intensified. States, faculties and Congress have enacted bans on TikTok. Final yr, an organization investigation discovered that Chinese language-based staff of ByteDance had entry to the information of U.S. TikTok customers, together with reporters.

The White Home final week backed a bipartisan Senate invoice that may give it more power to deal with TikTok, together with by banning the app. If it handed, the laws would give the administration extra leverage in its negotiations with the app and doubtlessly enable it to pressure a sale.