ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, says it has no intention of selling the social media platform.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” the company wrote in a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app that it owns.
“ByteDance doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.”
The statement was in response to an article by The Information on Thursday saying “ByteDance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok’s US business without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users”.
The development followed after the US passed a law to force ByteDance to sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in America.
The sell-or-ban measure was signed into law by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
The bill, passed by the senate on Tuesday, follows concerns among US lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or use the app for surveillance.
In March, the house of representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless the app parts ways with ByteDance.
The lawmakers voted — 352 in favour of the proposed law and 65 against it — in a rare moment of bipartisan unity.
In 2022, the US house of representatives ordered its staff to delete TikTok from any house-issued mobile devices.
TikTok recently said it would challenge in court the “unconstitutional” law.
Copyright 2024 TheCable. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from TheCable.
Follow us on twitter @Thecablestyle