Beijing, Apr 26 (EFE).- TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, said it had no plans to sell the hugely popular short video app after US President Joe Biden signed a bill that forces the Chinese tech giant to divest or face a ban in the country.
ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok, the company said late Thursday on the Toutiao social network.
The company said rumors that it was exploring options to sell the app in the US without its algorithm were not true.
Earlier this week, TikTok said it would challenge the new US law in court, which it describes as “unconstitutional.”
On Tuesday, the US Senate approved the bill that forces the Chinese company to sell TikTok within nine months or close operations in the country.
US lawmakers have expressed concerns that China could obtain information about US users from ByteDance and use its influence over public opinion by manipulating what users see on the app.
The US has also accused China of having used TikTok to influence the 2022 midterm elections and warned that it could also try to interfere in the November elections this year due to its desire to “widen the divisions of American society.”
In response, China accused the US of adopting intimidation tactics instead of competing fairly and of “never finding evidence that TikTok threatens its national security.”
TikTok, like Western services such as Google, Facebook, X, and Instagram, is blocked in China, where Bytedance operates a similar application called Douyin. EFE
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