As it did when Donald Trump was in the White House, the Joe Biden administration is pushing for that the company Byte Dance, owner of TikTok, stop having a high participation of Chinese shareholders.
The United States alludes to national security problems, because it considers that the application is permeable to Beijing.
TikTok, for its part, denies this situation and says that a forced sale of shares will not solve the problems.
It all happens days before the CEO of Dyte Dance appears before Congress next week.
The new escalation of pressure to “sell or close” on TikTok was published this Thursday, March 16 by The Wall Street Journal.
The move is a major shift in policy from the Biden administration, which has been widely criticized by the Republican opposition for not taking a tough stance on the platform. They ask for more pressure, like the one that, they understand, exerted by Donald Trump when he was in the White House.
TikTok and its battle against the United States
ByteDance shares are 60 percent owned by global investors, 20 percent owned by employees and the other 20 percent, to its founders.
The actions of the Chinese founders are what more voting rights they have and the ones Biden now wants sold to Americans.
The company was founded in Beijing in 2012 by Zhang Yiming, the current CEO of ByteDance, Liang Rubo.
TikTok has said a sale like this will not solve the security problems the United States is seeking to fix and reconfirmed that it will invest $1.5 billion in a program to safeguard the data and content of American users.
“If the goal is to protect national security, divesting is not the solution: a change in ownership will not impose new restrictions on data movement or access,” he said. Brooke Oberwetterresponsible for TikTok’s communication, in a statement.
TikTok has already changed some internal rules to comply with Washington’s wishes.
For example, from the end of 2022, accounts belonging to politicians and parties cannot access TikTok’s advertising features.
Accounts are also prohibited from using the fundraising features that influencers use in the app, as well as digital payments and gifts.
According to a report from BloombergIf the crisis continues, TikTok will have two other options in addition to selling the shares of Chinese owners: sell the entire company or go public through a public sale offer (IPO).
It is estimated that TikTok has a value between US$ 40 and 50 billion.
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