"A sale will not resolve America's national-security concerns over TikTok," said the popular video app's chief executive Shou Zi Chew in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance (BDNCE), has been facing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, who argue that the app poses a potential national security threat due to its Chinese ownership.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that TikTok faces a possible ban in the U.S. if ByteDance (BDNCE) does not divest its stake in the social media app.
TikTok responded by saying that "divestment doesn't solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access," adding that the company has already pledged to spend $1.5B to protect U.S. user data and content from Chinese government access. The plan involves hiring a U.S. partner, Oracle (ORCL).
Zi Chew, who became TikTok's boss in 2021, is scheduled to appear before a congressional panel next week to address lawmakers' questions. He also ruled out possibilities of an initial public offering of TikTok in the near term - a move that according to some politicians said could address their national-security concerns if it reduced Chinese ownership.
Last week, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner introduced a bipartisan legislation aimed at policing the threat of technology from "adversarial" nations, a move pointed at a potential ban of TikTok.
The bill, if passed, will allow the Secretary of Commerce to take actions "up to and including a ban" on tech names based in six nations: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.
Earlier today, key U.S. rivals Snap (SNAP) and Meta (META) registered modest gains after the Biden administration threatened a ban on TikTok

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.