(Beijing) The Chinese government is reportedly opposed to the United States putting in place a plan to force the owner of the social network TikTok to sell the online short video sharing platform.
Around the world, governments fear that the Chinese company which holds a stake in TikTok, ByteDance, is providing data collected by the application to Beijing, or that the social network is being used for propaganda or disinformation purposes.
In the United States, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the US government is toying with the idea of banning TikTok if ByteDance does not sell the company.
“If this news is true, we will firmly oppose”, insisted Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, without however specifying Beijing’s concrete intentions.
Forcing the sale of TikTok “would negatively impact investors in many countries, including China”, and would harm “investors’ confidence in doing business in the United States”, Ms. Shu explained.
The Chinese ministry spokeswoman made the statement hours before TikTok Chairman and CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before a US Congressional committee to prevent the government from banning its app.
Chew is expected to argue that TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denies allegations that the app poses a national security risk. At least that is what we could read in his remarks published before the hearing.
Parliaments in Canada, the United States and Britain, among others, have banned the use of TikTok on government-issued devices. India has also banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including messaging service WeChat, over security and privacy concerns.
