On March 15, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration delivered an ultimatum to Chinese internet company ByteDance, owners of the video hosting service TikTok, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Biden administration is demanding that ByteDance either sell ownership of TikTok or face a ban on the app in the United States.
The White House is citing national security concerns, stating that the Chinese government could use its nationals security laws to make ByteDance divulge the personal information of U.S. TikTok users.
The ultimatum was delivered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is composed of the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and Commerce. CFIUS has been in contact with TikTok for two years in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate these security concerns, a Treasury Department representative told CNN. The representative did not comment further.
On Feb. 27, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget announced that TikTok must be removed from government devices within 30 days. Other countries, including Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, have also banned the app from government devices in recent months.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has spoken out against the White House’s concerns, saying that TikTok is being “unreasonably suppressed” and that the U.S. is spreading false information about data security.
“The US side has so far failed to produce evidence that Tik Tok threatens US national security” Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a March 16 press briefing.
“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 best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, US-based protection of US user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said in a statement.
In June 2022, TikTok attempted to address concerns by implementing data safeguards that allow U.S. data to only be accessed by U.S. employees. This initiative involved partnering with U.S. cloud storage company Oracle. TikTok is working on implementing similar strategies in Europe, according to a March 8 announcement on the company’s website.
“It could be that the divestiture demand is the end of the discussion, but it’s also equally likely that the divestiture is a component of what CFIUS wants in terms of safeguarding national security,” Harry Broadman, a former CFIUS official, told CNN.
