Biden Administration Warns of TikTok Ban Unless Chinese Owners Sell Shares

In a move to address serious national security concerns, the Biden Administration has issued a warning to TikTok, a popular social media app, threatening to ban it unless its Chinese owners sell off their shares immediately. The demand came from the Committee on Foreign Investment, an agency that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S.

companies using classified information from the United States Intelligence Community. The call for TikTok to divest itself of its Chinese ownership follows claims from FBI director Christopher Wray that China is using the app to gather sensitive information from U.S.

residents and spread misinformation and propaganda. Former President Donald Trump had previously tried to ban TikTok for similar reasons in 2020. TikTok, which has over 100 million downloads in the United States alone, responded to the demand by stating that simply changing ownership would not address the security risks.

They argued that the best way to protect national security is through transparent, U.S.-based measures to safeguard user data.

Currently, ByteDance claims that 60 percent of its ownership is held by global investors, 20 percent by employees, and 20 percent by the company's Chinese founders. The potential ban on TikTok has garnered bipartisan support and federal agencies have been ordered to remove the app from government devices.