According to the “Wall Street Journal”, a government agency responsible for assessing the risks of any foreign investment to US national security directly threatens the video application.
The US government has asked the parent company of TikTok, the Chinese ByteDance, to sell its shares in the famous application, otherwise it will be banned in the United States, according to an article by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published this Wednesday.
Pressure has been mounting for years in the United States against the very popular platform, perceived as a threat to national security by many elected officials because of its membership in a Chinese group.
The February downing of a supposed Chinese spy balloon sparked renewed efforts in Congress to ban the entertaining short video app, accused of giving Beijing access to user data around the world, something TikTok has said. always denied.
Ultimatum
According to sources in the American daily, the White House ultimatum comes from CFIUS, a government agency responsible for assessing the risks of any foreign investment for American national security.
TikTok, which is making many efforts to reassure politicians and the public of its integrity, was counting on the federal agency to find a compromise.
“The quickest and most effective way to address these concerns (…) is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we have been working on with them for almost two years,” said a TikTok spokesperson. end of February.
He was reacting to consideration of a Republican-backed bill that would give President Joe Biden the authority to completely ban TikTok.
In the summer of 2020, former President Donald Trump signed several executive orders to try to ban the platform. Since then, its already considerable popularity has exploded thanks to the pandemic, beyond its original audience, teenagers.
The app has surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in “time spent” by American adults on each platform in recent years, and now trails Netflix, according to Insider Intelligence.
