The White House is intensifying its investigation into ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, over national security concerns.
Since late last year, the Justice Department has been investigating ByteDance’s admission that its employees had inappropriately obtained the data of several American TikTok users, including two reporters.
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The Justice department’s criminal division, the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia are all currently investigating whether ByteDance has ties with China’s government, according to the New York Times, which added that a Department spokesman declined to comment.
TikTok became popular for its ability to inspire memes and viral dance challenges and has become a popular haven for LGBTIQA+ youth, but it’s also turned into a national security concern. Since last year, the U.S. government has been investigating whether China might be using the app to spy on Americans, undermine democratic institutions and cultivate adolescent internet addiction.
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TikTok disclosed this week that the Biden administration had asked ByteDance to sell the app — which is already being blocked from government phones in the U.S. -- or else face a possible nationwide ban.
One of the people whose data has allegedly been tracked by ByteDance is a Forbes journalist who first reported the federal criminal inquiry. The now fired ByteDance employees who allegedly harvested the data were reportedly trying to find the sources of suspected leaks of internal conversations and business documents to journalists by gaining access to their IP addresses and other data. ByteDance has said it was making changes to prevent such breaches in the future.
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President Biden has indicated he might support a Congressional effort to ban TikTok in the U.S., while the company had asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, to approve of its plans for operating in the country while remaining under the ownership of ByteDance.
“If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: A change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” Maureen Shanahan, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said in a statement this week.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23. He is expected to testify on the company’s privacy and data security practices, its impact on young users, and its “relationship to the Chinese Communist Party,” according to a hearing announcement on the committee’s website.
