TikTok won't be sold, Chinese Parent informs Americans

The Chinese parent firm of TikTok, ByteDance, has stated that it has no plans to sell the company in the wake of a US law that requires it to sell the immensely popular video app or face bans in the US.

“ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok,” the firm stated on Toutiao, a social media network it owns, through its official account.

When the BBC asked TikTok for comment, the company did not answer right away.

TikTok announced earlier this week that it would contest the “unconstitutional” law in court.

The ByteDance comment was a reaction to an article published by The Information, a website covering the technology industry, which stated that it was investigating the possibility of selling TikTok’s US operations along with the algorithm that runs them.

The statement from the company stated, “Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true.” It also featured a screenshot of the story with the Chinese characters for “false rumour” stamped on it.

On a social media platform that it runs, ByteDance refuted the report

US President Joe Biden signed the sell-or-ban legislation into law on Wednesday.

Concerns regarding the extent of Chinese Communist Party control over ByteDance and its data have been raised in the US and other Western countries due to Beijing’s increasing dominance over private enterprises.

Claims that the Chinese government controls ByteDance have been refuted by TikTok on several occasions.

“We have faith in our ability to defend your rights in court,” Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, stated in a video uploaded to the app this week.

“The facts, and the Constitution, are on our side… rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere.”

The Chinese creator of ByteDance reportedly owns 20% of the company through a controlling stake, according to TikTok.

Institutional investors own around 60% of the company, including significant US investment firms Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and Carlyle Group.

Three of ByteDance’s five board members are Americans, and the remaining twenty percent is owned by the company’s global workforce.

The Chinese government has similarly warned that a TikTok ban would “inevitably come back to bite the US” and rejected such worries as hysterical.

But in the US, TikTok is not going to be banned right now.

Before a prospective ban can be implemented, the new rule provides ByteDance nine months to sell the company and an extra three months of grace.

This indicates that the sale deadline would probably occur in 2025, following the inauguration of the 2024 presidential winner.