TikTok parent company ByteDance denies report of sale

By: Noah M.

The Chinese tech company behind TikTok said it has no plans to sell part of the wildly popular video-sharing app despite a report claiming otherwise.

ByteDance denied Monday’s Bloomberg News report that it has considered selling a stake in TikTok as part of an effort to address security concerns in the US, where the app has amassed a huge following.

“There have been no discussions about any partial or full sale of TikTok,” a ByteDance spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. “These rumors are completely without merit.”

TikTok chief Alex Zhu also reportedly contested the story in a Tuesday note to employees by calling it “inaccurate.”

“We went on the record saying it was not true, but they decided to publish it anyway,” Zhu said in the note, which Reuters reviewed. “I want to assure you that we have had no discussions with potential buyers of TikTok, nor do we have any intention to.”

A stake sale is among the tactics that Beijing-based ByteDance has weighed as it looks to confront worries from US officials that TikTok’s Chinese roots could pose a security threat to American users, according to Bloomberg News.

ByteDance advisers have also suggested mounting a tough legal defense and carrying out an “operational separation for TikTok,” the news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

Security concerns about TikTok have mounted in the US amid trade tensions with China even as the app’s popularity has exploded among American teens and young adults. It was the fourth-highest-ranking free iPhone app in the US as of Tuesday morning, according to the app data firm Sensor Tower.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US has launched a review of ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, the lip-syncing app that became TikTok. The US Army also took up a security assessment of TikTok after Sen. Chuck Schumer raised concerns about the app’s use for military recruiting.

While TikTok has maintained that the Chinese government has no influence over the app, the company has faced reports that workers have been asked to delete content that could cross Beijing. In one noteworthy example, TikTok apologized last month for briefly removing a makeup tutorial video that condemned the Chinese government’s treatment of Muslims.