China accuses US of spreading misinformation and blocking TikTok app

China on Thursday accused the United States of spreading disinformation and cracking down on the TikTok app after reports that Washington asked its Chinese owners to sell stakes in the video-sharing app.

The United States has provided no evidence that TikTok poses a threat to its national security and uses the excuse of data security to abuse its power and crack down on foreign companies, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news conference.

“The US must stop spreading misinformation about data security, stop harassing the company in question, and provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies to invest in and operate in its market,” Wang said.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the US Treasury Department’s Foreign Investment Committee threatened to ban the “app” from the US market if its owners, ByteDance Ltd. headquartered in Beijing, will not sell their position.

“If the goal is to protect national security, the takeover will not solve the problem: the change of ownership will not impose new restrictions on data flows or access to them,” Maureen Shanahan, a representative of TikTok, responded.

Shanahan said TikTok had already addressed the issues with “transparent user data protection” in the United States with “reliable third-party monitoring and verification.”

The WSJ cited “persons familiar with the matter”. The Treasury Department and the White House National Security Council declined to comment on this information.

In late February, the White House gave federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from all government devices. Some departments, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and the State Department, have already imposed restrictions.

In December, Congress passed the “Law to Ban TikTok on Government Devices” as part of a broader public funding package. Legislation allows the use of TikTok in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement, and research purposes.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are pushing a bill that would give the Joe Biden administration more power to crack down on TikTok.

TikTok is used by two-thirds of U.S. teens, but there are growing concerns that Beijing could gain control of U.S. user data and that the “app” is serving to spread pro-Beijing propaganda.

China bans most foreign social networks in its market, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok itself, which has a presence in the country through an internal version called Douyin.