TikTok faces a ban in the US if it doesn't sell its stake from China

According to TikTok, if China's Stake is not sold, the US may impose a ban.

The Chinese-owned app for sharing videos, called ByteDance, is being accused of collecting data from millions of its users, which is considered to be a threat to national security.

According to the business, a forced sale would not alter data flows or access US authorities have long expressed concern that the Chinese government would have access to the popular app's data.

The US government under US President Joe Biden wants ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok to make a clear rupture with China, according to the WSJ.

According to the publication, ByteDance was unanimously advised to divest from TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), which monitors national security issues.

A TikTok spokeswoman confirmed that CFIUS had contacted the company and stated that TikTok did not contest the WSJ's reporting. The representative claimed that the story was exaggerated and that it was unclear what "divestiture" actually meant in daily life.

The representative stated that if safeguarding national security is the goal, divestiture is ineffective because a change of ownership would not impose any additional limitations on data flows or access.

"The open, US-based safeguarding of US user data and systems is the best method to answer concerns about national security."

In 2020, when Donald Trump was still the president, a ban was first threatened. But, the Biden administration also has a negative opinion of the social media platform. Similar to Instagram and Twitter, TikTok collects a tonne of data about its users.

It has access to location data and can collect biometric information from users. There is concern that the Chinese government would receive the material. According to TikTok, as part of a program it calls Project Texas, the company has made an attempt to transfer all data with US origins to the US.