TikTok’s parent company facing national security review, report says
A week after members of Congress expressed concern about Chinese ownership of popular short-form video app TikTok, national security regulators are taking a closer look.
Regulators are indeed now reviewing TikTok for national security concerns, Reuters reports.
The review is being run by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a formerly obscure interagency group. CFIUS, based out of the Treasury Department, comprises members from a dozen different agencies who review transactions in which an international business acquires a US business for national security concerns.
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, are in talks with CFIUS "about measures it could take to avoid divesting" the US assets it acquired, people familiar with the matter said. Reuters granted its sources anonymity, as CFIUS does not comment publicly on its investigations and is barred from disclosing certain information.
