BEIJING — China’s authorities stated Thursday it could oppose doable U.S. plans to power TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor to promote the short-video service as a security risk and warned such a transfer would harm investor confidence in america.
Governments are nervous TikTok’s proprietor, ByteDance, may give searching historical past or different knowledge about customers to China’s authorities or promote propaganda and disinformation. The Wall Road Journal reported U.S. authorities have been contemplating banning TikTok ban if ByteDance doesn’t promote the corporate.
Learn Extra: Why the U.S. and Other Countries Want to Ban or Restrict TikTok
“If the information is true, China will resolutely oppose it,” stated a Ministry of Commerce spokeswoman, Shu Jiting. She gave no indication what Beijing may do.
A pressured sale “would severely injury buyers from a number of international locations together with China” and harm “confidence to spend money on america,” Shu stated.
TikTok is one focus of conflicts between China and different governments over know-how and safety which might be disrupting processor chip, smartphone and different industries.
The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, is because of make a high-profile appearance Thursday earlier than a U.S. Congressional committee to make the case for why the massively standard video-sharing app shouldn’t be banned.
The US, Britain and New Zealand’s parliament have banned use of TikTok on government-issued telephones. India has banned TikTok and dozens of different Chinese language apps, together with the WeChat message service, on safety and privateness grounds.
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