Tiktok done in the US? The Biden administration is apparently threatening a nationwide ban

It’s all about this

Tiktok, which is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, has long been closely watched in the United States. The US authorities fear that Tiktok could be used by the Chinese government for espionage purposes because the app has access to millions of customer data in the US.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Joe Biden’s administration now wants to get to work. According to the report, the US government intends to issue an ultimatum to the Chinese owners: either Bytedance sells its shares in the app or Tiktok is completely banned in the United States.

What the “compromise” should be about

According to the newspaper, the said “compromise” was established by the American authority CFIUS. This is responsible for the risk assessment of foreign investments for national security. For months, there have been concerns in the US and other Western countries that the Chinese state could access Tiktok user data through Bytedance.

The CFIUS authority has therefore had Tiktok in its sights for some time and wrote a report in 2020 in which it expressed concerns about national security. Former President Donald Trump wanted to ban Tiktok while in office, but was stopped by a court. Numerous authorities at the local and national level, as well as some universities, have already banned Tiktok.

So far, neither the White House nor the CFIUS authority has commented on the reports.

This is how Tiktok responds

A Tiktok spokeswoman indirectly described the US government’s alleged plan as useless. “A change of ownership would not introduce any new restrictions on data flow or access,” spokeswoman Maureen Shanahan said in a statement, as USAToday writes.

A few months ago, Tiktok announced that the US had committed to improving security controls and isolating all traffic from US users. Shanahan said it “remains the best way to address national security concerns,” she said.

Tiktok in the US

With a billion users worldwide, Tiktok is especially popular with the younger generation. You can make short videos, an algorithm will suggest videos to watch. Especially in the US, the use of the short video service has recently increased sharply, also among older internet users. More than 100 million people use the app. Tiktok has already overtaken other networks such as Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in terms of time spent on it.

In late February, the White House ordered the app removed from all US federal government devices. The EU Commission has also taken a similar decision for its officials’ mobile phones. (con/sda/dpa)