ByteDance-owned TikTok inching toward US security deal to avoid sale

U.S. lawmakers and TikTok are hammering out a plan, under which the short-form video app would make changes to its data security and governance without requiring its parent firm, China’s ByteDance to sell it, the New York Times reported.

TikTok and the Biden administration have drafted a preliminary agreement to resolve national security concerns but are still deciding on a potential agreement, the Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment on the report but said the app was confident about being able to “fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns”.

ByteDance and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

TikTok has long faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, who have questioned the Chinese-owned app’s safeguards of user data.

It has been over two years since a U.S. national security panel ordered parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed on to China’s communist government.

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps, with more than 1 billion active users globally, and counts the United States as its largest market.