US threatens to ban TikTok unless Chinese owners divest

A TikTok spokesperson, Brooke Oberwetter, told Reuters that the company had recently heard from the US Treasury-led committee on foreign investment in the United States (CFIUS), which demanded that the Chinese owners of the app sell their shares, and said otherwise they would face a possible US ban of the video app.

The Journal said 60% of shares in ByteDance, which owns TikTok, are owned by global investors, 20% by employees and 20% by its founders. CFIUS, a powerful national security body, in 2020 had unanimously recommended that ByteDance divest TikTok.

TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5bn on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.

China accused the U S of spreading disinformation and suppressing TikTok.

The US has yet to present evidence that TikTok threatens its national security and was using the excuse of data security to abuse its power to suppress foreign companies, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, told reporters at a daily briefing.

Amid the increasing scrutiny, TikTok earlier this month announced a data security plan that said would protect user information across Europe. That plan, called Project Clover, involves data storage on servers in Ireland and Norway, with a third-party IT company vetting any transfers of data outside of Europe.

Reuters contributed reporting