TikTok dismisses calls for Chinese owners to sell stakes

Wednesday, TikTok dismissed rumors that the Biden administration had demanded that its Chinese owners surrender their holdings in the popular video-sharing app, stating that such a step would not safeguard national security.

The firm was responding to a Wall Street Journal story that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a division of the Treasury Department, was threatening a U.S. ban on the app unless its Beijing-based owners sold.

“If defending national security is the purpose, divestiture does not fix the problem: a change in ownership would not impose additional constraints on data flows or access,” said Maureen Shanahan, a spokesman for TikTok. “The most effective method to address national security concerns is through the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with comprehensive third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are now implementing.”

The Journal article quoted unidentified “people with knowledge of the situation.” The Treasury Department and the National Security Council of the White House declined to comment.

The White House told all federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government devices at the end of last month.