Biden administration threatens to ban TikTok if Chinese parent company doesn’t sell stakes

The Biden administration has demanded the Chinese owners of TikTok sell their stakes in the  social media app or risk a possible ban in the U.S., the company told The Hill on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) made the push. TikTok confirmed it had heard from CFIUS and said it did not dispute the reporting.

The CFIUS demand comes amid security concerns about the video-sharing app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance — specifically, that the Chinese government could gain access to American user data.

Congress has been increasingly scrutinizing TikTok and talking about a potential ban — and Republicans have knocked the Biden administration for not taking action on the perceived threat.