“If the goal is to protect national security, it is unnecessary to call for a ban or divestiture, as neither option solves the industry's data access and transfer issues,” a TikTok spokesperson said on the matter on Wednesday. .
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“We remain confident that the best path forward to address national security concerns is to protect US-based user data and systems with robust third-party monitoring, investigation and verification,” the spokesperson added.
Ultimatum
According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other media outlets, the White House gave an ultimatum: if TikTok remains owned by ByteDance, it will be banned in the United States.
China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday urged the United States to “stop unjustified attacks” against the platform and denounced a business environment that discriminates against foreign groups.
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“Data security issues should not be used as a tool for some countries to expand the concept of national security, abuse state power and irrationally suppress companies in other countries,” said its spokesman, Wang Wenbin.
“The United States has not yet provided any evidence that TikTok threatens the national security of the United States,” he added.
The platform is seen as a danger to national security by several congressmen who accuse it of giving Beijing access to user data from around the world, something that Tik Tok denies.
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Parliamentary efforts to veto the app resurfaced after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon in February, accused of being a spying device.
The White House's request comes from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government body responsible for assessing the risks of any foreign investment to national security.
The government and the Treasury Department declined to comment on the information.
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Unsuccessful attempt at agreement
TikTok went to great lengths to reassure politicians and the public about its integrity and hoped to reach a settlement with the federal agency CFIUS.
“The quickest and most effective way to address these concerns… is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we have been working on with them for nearly two years,” a spokesperson for the app TikTok said in late February.
However, the White House last week celebrated a bill passed by the US Senate with bipartisan support that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok entirely.
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The North American government has already prohibited employees of federal agencies from having the application on their devices, through a law sanctioned in early January.
The European Commission and the Canadian government recently made similar decisions for their employees' smartphones.
The app has surpassed YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in “time spent” by American adults on each of those platforms in recent years and is just behind Netflix, according to Insider Intelligence.
Source: AFP
