TikTok Denies Chinese Parent May Be Preparing to Divest App

TikTok last week denied a Reuters report that it's developing an operationally independent U.S. version of the social media application that Chinese parent company ByteDance could then sell to a non-Chinese owner.

TikTok said it continues to maintain that it's “simply not possible” commercially, legally or technologically for ByteDance to divest the popular app, as required by a recently enacted U.S. law.

TikTok has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn the law, which followed a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and which will ban the app in the U.S. if it's not sold to an entity that isn’t controlled by a foreign adversary (see 2405070049). A group of TikTok content creators also have sued, claiming the law violates their First Amendment rights (see 2405160065).