"Sale won't resolve US security concerns over TikTok": App's CEO

Washington [US], March 17 : Amid the war of words between TikTok and the US, the China-owned video-sharing platform's CEO said the sale would not resolve America's national-security concerns over the app, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew, in an interview, said divesting the company from its Chinese owners--a move the US is now demanding--doesn't offer any more protection than a multibillion-dollar plan the company has already proposed.
This statement came after the US threatened to ban TikTok from the country unless the app's Chinese owners agree to spin off their share of the social media platform, TikTok acknowledged Wednesday evening.
TikTok proposed to hire an American partner, Oracle Corp., to store American users' data and safeguard against any Chinese influence over what videos Americans view on the app, according to WSJ.
"I do welcome feedback on what other risk we are talking about that is not addressed by this," he said from TikTok's WeWork offices in Washington. "So far I haven't heard anything that cannot actually be solved by this," he added.
Meanwhile, China on Thursday said the United States was "unreasonably suppressing" TikTok and spreading "false information" about data security.
"The US side has so far failed to produce evidence that Tik Tok threatens US national security," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
TikTok has been negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) -- a group composed of the Departments of Treasury, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense and Commerce, among others -- for more than two years on a deal that might allow the app to continue operating in the US market in the face of security and privacy concerns, reported CNN.
US officials have raised fears that the Chinese government could use its national security laws to pressure TikTok or its Chinese parent ByteDance into handing over the personal information of TikTok's US users, which might then benefit Chinese intelligence activities or influence campaigns.
TikTok has become the latest reason flashpoints in a much wider US-China conflict that has extended beyond geopolitics to issues such as trade and technology, reported WSJ.
The standoff on the same issues led the Trump administration to effectively ban Chinese telecom-equipment company Huawei Technologies Co. from the US and then lobby allies to ditch it, too.
In both cases, politicians have focused on the prospect that the companies could be compelled to help Chinese authorities spy or interfere with communications, according to the American interpretation of Chinese law.
In the case of TikTok, U.S. politicians have a more complicated calculus: The app is used by some 100 million Americans, risking political fallout if Washington made good on its threat to ban it, as per a WSJ report.