The Wall Street Journal reports that the US government has asked the Chinese founders of the social network TikTok to withdraw from the company, or risk leading to a ban on the short vertical video app in the United States. . A threat similar to that of Donald Trump in 2020 but that the new president Joe Biden would have a better chance of implementing.
The United States tightens the screw for the second time against the Chinese social network. According to an article published on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 by the economic newspaper Wall Street JournalThe US government has threatened the Chinese owners of TikTok to ban the app on their territory if they do not withdraw their investments from the company.
This announcement adds to the growing distrust of several Western governments towards the company since the end of 2022, after two scandals of illegal access to the data of American journalists and European users by TikTok.
Reduce the risk of data breaches in the US
The threat is not officially made by the White House, but is reported by a spokeswoman for the US branch of TikTok, Brooke Oberwetter, according to the British press agency. Reuters. This request would come from the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), in charge of ensuring that companies owned by foreign companies do not endanger national security. public authority « demanded that the Chinese owners of the app sell their shares“, under penalty of a “possible” banishment of the application at the federal level.
Founded in 2012, the social network of tech giant ByteDance is still 20% owned by its Chinese founders, retaining the majority of votes in company decisions. TikTok with more than 100 million users in the United States, CFIUS and the US administration fear that their data could be accessed by the dictatorship in power in China.
A line of thought refuted by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by declaring this Thursday, March 16, that “the United States has not yet provided evidence that TikTok threatens national security,” he quotes. Reuters. The spokesman for its American subsidiary also considered the threat unnecessary, considering that a “the change of ownership would not place new restrictions on access or movement of data».
Second ban threat for the White House
This is not the first time that the US administration has sought to force the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell their shares. In 2020, CFIUS already recommended that ByteDance withdraw from the company, followed by former President Donald Trump who brandished the same threat to ban the social network outright on US soil.
TikTok even came close to selling its US branch to software company Oracle and supermarket giant Walmart before Trump’s decision was blocked by the court.
But the situation has changed: as you rememberReuters, the White House recently backed a new bipartisan law that would give his administration new powers to ban foreign-based tech giants. If the case ends up in court again, the administration of President Joe Biden could well win this time.
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