TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, said it will not sell the popular video sharing app to continue its business in the U.S., despite facing a potential ban under a law President Biden signed Wednesday.
The bill, included in a foreign aid package Biden signed, gives ByteDance up to a year to sell TikTok or be banned from operating in the U.S. The proposal was fueled by national security concerns raised by the supporters, who argued the Chinese government could compel TikTok to share U.S. user data.
It is the latest and most critical threat TikTok has faced in the U.S. yet — but the company is not backing down.
The company issued a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app ByteDance owns, dispelling a Thursday report by The Information that claimed ByteDance was exploring options for selling TikTok in the U.S. without its algorithm, according to a copy of the statement reported by CNN.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” ByteDance said in the statement.
“ByteDance doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok,” it continued.
The Hill reached out to TikTok for comment.
Even if TikTok were purchased in the U.S., it likely would be different from the app users use today because Chinese export rules would regulate whether the algorithm could be transferred, and the TikTok algorithm has been a key factor to its popularity among users.
The other route for TikTok to remain active in the U.S. is through a successful court case. TikTok announced Wednesday, immediately after Biden signed the law, that it would challenge it in court.
Other attempts to ban TikTok, both under the Trump administration and in states, have been blocked by courts.