The Biden administration has called on Chinese company ByteDance to divest its stakes in TikTok and warned of a possible ban of the social media platform if it fails to do so, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The Department of the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. made the demand for the sale of stakes in the video-sharing app, according to sources cited by WSJ.
TikTok said a possible divestment of the platform would not address national security risks.
“The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing,” Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to appear next week before House Energy and Commerce Committee members to field questions from lawmakers on security issues related to the app, according to the report.
