The Biden administration needs TikTok’s Chinese language dad or mum firm to divest itself of the favored social media platform, or it may face a potential nationwide ban, TikTok confirmed to CBS Information on Wednesday.
The Wall Avenue Journal reported that the Committee on International Funding within the U.S. (CFIUS) lately made the divestment ask, and a TikTok spokesperson didn’t dispute that account.
The Treasury Division, of which CFIUS is part, declined to remark. The White Home and Nationwide Safety Council additionally declined to remark.
“If defending nationwide safety is the target, divestment does not remedy the issue,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan advised CBS Information in an announcement.
“One of the best ways to handle considerations about nationwide safety is with the clear, U.S.-based safety of U.S. consumer information and techniques, with sturdy third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we’re already implementing,” Shanahan added.
A spokesperson for TikTok additionally mentioned that it was not precisely clear what divestment would truly appear like, and that concrete particulars on this weren’t offered to the corporate. It was not clear if the corporate was given any kind of deadline.
TikTok, which is owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has already been banned on federal government devices, together with navy units, and greater than half of U.S. states have banned the app on state authorities units as nicely. There was increasing bipartisan support for a full nationwide ban over potential nationwide safety considerations.
“TikTok is a modern-day Malicious program of the [Chinese Communist Party], used to surveil and exploit People’ private data,” Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman of the Home International Affairs Committee, mentioned in February. “It is a spy balloon in your telephone.”
In a letter to the CEOs of Apple and Google, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote in February, “Not like most social media platforms, TikTok poses a novel concern as a result of Chinese language regulation obligates ByteDance, its Beijing-based dad or mum firm, to ‘assist, help, and cooperate with state intelligence work.'”
As CBS Information has previously reported, TikTok, like many different tech firms, tracks customers’ private data, together with telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, contacts and WiFi networks.
“We do have nationwide safety considerations,” FBI Director Christopher Wray mentioned final 12 months. “They embrace the chance that the Chinese language authorities may use it to manage information assortment on tens of millions of customers.”
Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public coverage for the Americas, advised CBS Information in December that the priority is overstated and “makes for good politics.” He mentioned TikTok collects much less information than different social media apps and is working to maneuver consumer information to servers within the U.S., out of attain of China.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify earlier than the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee later this month, and he’s anticipated to face powerful questioning over the corporate’s information assortment and sharing procedures.
— Caitlin Yilek, Scott MacFarlane and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
Discussion about this post