The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners do not sell their stake in the social media company to address growing national security concerns, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) — an inter-agency panel that evaluates foreign investment in the US — made the divestiture request recently as part of its ongoing review into the company, which is owned by Beijing’s ByteDance, the people said.
TikTok, the popular short-form video app, has faced growing scrutiny over fears data it collects on American users could be passed to the Chinese government and Communist party. While it has denied those claims, some Republican and Democratic senators have urged the app be banned or ByteDance to divest its US arm. The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the demand.