China's ByteDance Must Comply With TikTok Divestiture Requirement, Lawmakers Say
Although the Trump administration has temporarily delayed enforcing a law that calls for China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban of the popular social media application in the U.S., ByteDance shouldn't expect the reprieve to become permanent, the leaders of the House Select Committee on China said at a Brookings Institution event Feb. 25.
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“There are different proposals to buy TikTok,” committee Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said. “We’ve had a chance to at least talk and learn more about some of those proposals. But ultimately, ByteDance has to come to the conclusion that it’s in their interest to divest. If they don’t, then TikTok shuts down in the United States.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the committee’s ranking member, said he’s “OK with a short period of deferred enforcement, which is what we’re in right now, but I strongly urge the administration to move toward a deal.”
President Donald Trump directed DOJ Jan. 20 to hold off for 75 days on enforcing the law (see 2501210051). Trump said he would “pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans."
Proponents of the TikTok law, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in April (see 2404240043), assert that the Chinese government could use TikTok to spread anti-U.S. propaganda and gain access to U.S. users' personal information. “The American people have spoken,” Krishnamoorthi said. “There are a lot of Republicans and Democrats who believe that there’s an ongoing threat right now as we sit here with regard to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] access to that data.”
TikTok said last year that it would not be possible for ByteDance to divest the app, partly because the Chinese government wouldn’t permit it (see 2405070049).