TikTok under pressure as Biden administration scrutinizes Chinese ownership

TikTok’s Chinese owners may be facing pressure to quit. Concerns about the popular social media platform’s security have led some Biden administration officials to “push for the sale of the US operations to the Chinese company to ensure Beijing can’t use the app for espionage and political influence,” according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources,

The idea of ​​a forced sale has been raised in discussions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, with representatives from the Pentagon and the Department of Justice pushing for the sale. Among the concerns is the idea that the Chinese government could use TikTok to obtain information about US users, as well as dictate what content is or is not shown on the platform “in an attempt to influence public opinion in the US”.

TikTok is owned by Chinese conglomerate ByteDance. TikTok did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.

National security concerns about TikTok have intensified in recent weeks. A report earlier this month suggested that talks between the Biden administration and the app about its operations in the US will be detained due to national security concerns. The app is prohibited for use on government-issued devices or networks in some states, including Virginia and Georgia with some universities in Georgia, Oklahoma and Alabama similarly preventing access to campus computers and networks.

Concerns about TikTok ownership and national security are not new. Before the Trump administration lobbied unsuccessfully for a ban on the social media platform in USA.