The Biden administration has threatened to ban the social media app TikTok unless its Chinese owners divest of their shares in the company.
The Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) recently made the request, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first reported the story.
“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem,” TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan told CBS News in a statement. “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.”
A TikTok spokesperson also told CBS that no deadline was provided, it is not clear what divestment would look like, and concrete details weren’t provided to the company.
The move comes a week after U.S. senators unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban the social media app nationwide. It also follows a similar bill advanced by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In addition to addressing TikTok, the senate bill would cover other technologies, like artificial intelligence, financial technology services, quantum computing, e-commerce, satellite and mobile networks, cloud services and storage, internet infrastructure providers, and more.
Over recent years, concerns over TikTok have grown, as more information has been learned about the company’s ability to collect sensitive user data — including from minors — without the user’s specific knowledge. This includes age, images, personal contacts, browsing history, keystroke logs, file names, wireless connections, and geolocation.
TikTok says user data is stored in the U.S. and Singapore. However, its parent company servers are located in China.
“A change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” Shanahan said in a separate statement reported by USA Today. “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.”
