TikTok parent says ‘we’re not selling’ despite US ultimatum: Why Congress deems platform a national security threat

A sign is on display at TikTok in Los Angeles, California, USA, 15 February 2024. EPA, ALLISON DINNER

TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, announced yesterday, Thursday, that it does not intend to to sell the app, despite the passage of new legislation in the US that forces it to cut ties with the social network under the threat of a ban on the platform in the country.

“Foreign press reports that ByteDance is considering selling TikTok are not true,” the company told Toutiao, a platform it owns, adding that it “does not intend to sell TikTok.”

Congress considers the platform a national security threat because of its ties to the Chinese entertainment company.

The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill, then signed by US President Joe Biden, that forces ByteDance to sell TikTok within 12 months. Otherwise, the application will be blocked from the online stores of Apple and Google in the US.

TikTok, which stresses that it has not shared and does not intend to share data of its American users with the Chinese government, complains that the bill amounts to a ban, which infringes on its users’ freedom of expression.

The social network has for years been targeted by Washington, which it suspects is used by Beijing to spy on Americans and collect their personal data, as well as to spread Chinese propaganda.

“We will fight in the courts,” said TikTok chief Su Zhiqiu.

TikTok has grown impressively during the pandemic and now has 170 million users in the US.

Its value is difficult to estimate, especially in the event of a forced sale. In 2020, ByteDance had set its price at $60 billion, according to Bloomberg. That year, then-US President Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to force the parent company to sell TikTok.

Meta, Instagram’s parent company, or US internet giant Google are unlikely to be able to buy the app as US competition authorities won’t allow it.

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in March that he wanted to assemble a group of investors to buy TikTok.

But any sale would also face opposition from Chinese authorities, as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce amended in 2020 the list of technologies subject to export restrictions or bans.

This list includes artificial intelligence technologies (data processing, content recommendations, etc.), which have contributed to the success of TikTok, where the user sees the video on the screen according to their preferences and previous searches.

With information from AFP via APE-MPE
Beijing, China