ByteDance has become the latest Chinese tech group to find itself in Washington’s crosshairs, as US senator Marco Rubio called for regulators to review its 2017 acquisition of the start-up that fuelled the explosive growth of the company.
ByteDance is one of the few Chinese tech companies to grow an audience of hundreds of millions of users outside its home market. Its main international app TikTok, a popular viral video sharing platform, was boosted by the $1bn acquisition of Musical.ly, which had offices in Shanghai and Los Angeles.
Mr Rubio wants Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the inter-agency group that vets foreign takeovers, to review the deal. “Today I will be asking CFIUS to review #TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly,” Mr Rubio said in a tweet. “Ample & growing evidence exists that TikTok’s platform for western markets, including the US, are censoring content in line with #China’s communist government directives.”