US threatens TikTok ban if Chinese owners don’t sell stake – WSJ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration has demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stake in the popular video app or face a possible U.S. ban, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to people familiar with the matter.

This would be the most significant of a number of recent U.S. legislative and official actions that have raised concerns about TikTok user data being passed to China’s government. TikTok boasts more than 100,000,000 U.S. users.

The White House declined comment.

Brooke Oberwetter, TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that she told Reuters “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 U.S. Congress will be represented by Shou Zi Cheng, TikTok chief executive.

Any U.S. ban will face major legal hurdles. Trump’s 2020 plan to ban TikTok was blocked by a string of court rulings.

Since more than two decades, TikTok has been working with the U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. (CFIUS). TikTok claimed it has spent more $1.5 billion on data security and denies any spying claims. The Wall Street Journal stated that CFIU had recently demanded the sale. A Treasury spokesperson declined comment.

TikTok announced Wednesday that “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.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Washington, and Eva Mathews, Bengaluru; Editing and editing by Devika Syamnath & Daniel Wallis).

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