Reuters reported on Friday that the US government had initiated a national security review of TikTok, the popular Chinese video-sharing app. TikTok has become increasingly popular with US youth; according to Reuters, about "60 per cent of TikTok’s 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24".
The security review has been launched into the 2017 acquisition of US social media app Musical.ly by ByteDance Technology, the parent company of TikTok. Musical.Ly allowed users to create and share short-duration lip-sync videos.
Reuters reported the review of the deal is being carried out by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), "which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks". The news report claims the parent company of TikTok had not sought clearance from CFIUS when it had acquired Musical.Ly. CFIUS is in talks with TikTok on possible measures to avoid divestment of the Musical.ly assets.
“While we cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes, TikTok has made clear that we have no higher priority than earning the trust of users and regulators in the US. Part of that effort includes working with Congress and we are committed to doing so,” a TikTok spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The review of the deal comes amid concerns by US lawmakers on the safety of data on US citizens in Chinese hands and allegations that TikTok had censored political content.
In late October, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tom Cotton asked Joseph Macguire, acting director of national intelligence, to probe TikTok, expressing concern over its collection of data. The lawmakers also warned TikTok could be targeted by "foreign influence campaigns," possibly alluding to allegations that Russia carried out disinformation campaigns on Facebook to influence the 2016 US presidential elections. Schumer welcomed news of the probe into TikTok.
While TikTok claims the data on US users is stored in the US itself, US lawmakers argue ByteDance operates under Chinese laws.
In October, Senator Marco Rubio had questioned why TikTok had “only had a few videos of the Hong Kong protests that have been dominating international headlines for months”. Rubio also responded to news on the CFIUS probe into TikTok, tweeting, “Last month I asked @USTreasury to conduct a CFIUS review of @tiktok_us. Because any platform owned by a company in #China which collects massive amounts of data on Americans is a potential serious threat to our country."
ByteDance has been among China's fastest-growing start-ups. In addition to TikTok, ByteDance owns the popular news aggregator Jinri Toutiao. According to Reuters, ByteDance "posted a better-than-expected revenue for the first half of 2019 at over $7 billion, and was valued at $78 billion late last year".
