TikTok confirms the U.S. has threatened ban if Chinese parent ByteDance doesn't sell stake

Washington asked TikTok's Chinese genitor institution ByteDance to divest its involvement successful the abbreviated video app oregon look a imaginable prohibition successful the U.S., CNBC has confirmed.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter told Reuters that the institution had precocious heard from the U.S. Committee connected Foreign Investment successful the United States (CFIUS). The committee told ByteDance to merchantability its shares successful TikTok, oregon the app could look a U.S. ban.

Oberwetter oregon the U.S. Treasury Department were not instantly disposable for remark erstwhile contacted by CNBC.

A idiosyncratic acquainted with the matter, who requested anonymity owed to the sensitivity of the situation, told CNBC that TikTok had been contacted by CFIUS but the steadfast was seeking further clarity from Washington.

The Wall Street Journal archetypal reported the U.S. move.

The U.S. has a fig of concerns astir TikTok and has maintained the app presents a nationalist information risk. Washington is acrophobic that American idiosyncratic information connected TikTok could autumn into the hands of the Chinese government, due to a instrumentality successful China that compels firms to manus implicit accusation to Beijing if they are requested to bash so. TikTok has repeatedly stated that U.S. idiosyncratic information is not stored successful China wherever those laws apply.

Washington is besides acrophobic that TikTok could beryllium utilized for power operations by China.

A TikTok spokesperson said divesting the concern would not resoluteness the U.S.'s concerns.

"If protecting nationalist information is the objective, divestment doesn't lick the problem: a alteration successful ownership would not enforce immoderate caller restrictions connected information flows oregon access," the spokesperson said.

"The champion mode to code concerns astir nationalist information is with the transparent, U.S.-based extortion of U.S. idiosyncratic information and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing."

It's not the archetypal clip that TikTok has faced an outright prohibition successful the U.S. Former President Donald Trump in 2020 tried to prohibition the abbreviated video app and past pushed to get TikTok spun disconnected from ByteDance. The U.S. courts ended up blocking Trump's attempts.

TikTok has sought to guarantee U.S. lawmakers that American idiosyncratic information is safe. In June past year, it moved each of its U.S. idiosyncratic postulation to Oracle's cloud. Reuters reported successful December that TikTok is besides giving Oracle the quality to inspect immoderate of the app's code. Oracle has besides been tasked with ensuring TikTok's exertion infrastructure is abstracted from ByteDance, Reuters reported.

So acold it appears the moves person done small to calm the U.S.'s fears. In February, the White House gave authorities agencies 30 days to guarantee TikTok was not installed connected authoritative devices.