The request, which TikTok confirmed late Wednesday, marks the most up-to-date escalation in the US government’s crackdown on the app simply because of prospective safety dangers that critics have pointed out primarily based on its ties to China.
It comes right after a series of proposals emerging in Congress that target TikTok to varying degrees, and right after a prosperous bid to ban TikTok on federal government devices passed final year.
The most up-to-date news also comes in front CEO of TikTok Shou Zi Chev’s scheduled testimony prior to the Residence Power and Commerce Committee subsequent week.
Chu mentioned the asset forfeiture would not resolve any safety issues and that his enterprise had doubled down on its ongoing plans to track and separately shop the information of US customers.
“Divestment does not resolve the challenge: A transform of ownership would not impose any new restrictions on information flow or access,” Chu mentioned in a current interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Chev declined to comment on irrespective of whether BiteDance, TikTok’s parent enterprise, would be open for sale application to an American enterprise. Other people wondered how most likely alienation was.
Hannah Kelly, a researcher in the technologies and national safety system at the Center for a New American Safety, mentioned she does not think BiteDance will agree to separate from TikTok.
“This has been a essential point in the CFIUS negotiations for a lot more than two years — how to mitigate identified US national safety issues, specifically with regard to information flow and access, other than a full divestment,” Kelly mentioned, referring to the Committee on Foreign Investment in United States, Federal Interagency Panel.
We’ll have a lot more on the prospective impacts of the TikTok ban on TheHill.com.