U.S. Threatens TikTok Ban Unless China Owners Divest

TikTok has been threatened with a federal ban unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells its stake in the popular short video app, the company said on Thursday.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the interagency panel that reviews foreign investments with national security implications, has demanded that the Beijing-based app maker divest, TikTok confirmed in a statement to the press. “If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” a company spokesperson told Newsweek in an email.

“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” a company spokesperson told Newsweek in an email.

TikTok could move its operations offshore or fight a future federal ban on legal grounds. U.S. courts threw out the Trump administration’s attempt to restrict the app in 2020.

The U.S., Canada and the European Union have already announced TikTok restrictions on government devices. The U.K. announced on Thursday that it would ban the app from government phones.

China’s officials say the concerns about TikTok—the country’s only globally successful software—amount to paranoia.