WASHINGTON — The Biden administration recently told TikTok that it wanted the app’s Chinese owners to sell it or face a possible ban in the United States. But that plan hit a snag on Thursday when Beijing said it would oppose the sale.
The announcement stirred up the debate about the app’s future, leaving the White House with little to no clear choice.
President Biden’s narrow menu now includes trying to ban the app, the other side of the administration’s threat. But that would be very difficult without the help of Congress. Or, experts said, it could try to push a sale anyway, through a government body that investigates foreign companies, essentially daring Beijing to comply with its opposition.
“You have a decision to make: Do you want to have a confrontation with China over TikTok?” said James A. Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Commerce told a news conference on Thursday that the country would “strongly oppose” the sale of the app. Forcing such a transaction would “severely undermine the confidence of investors from a number of countries, including China, to invest in the United States,” she added.
TikTok under scrutiny
The popular video app is facing pressure amid concerns over the handling of user data.
His rebuke of the Biden administration came just hours before the TikTok CEO was scheduled to testify before Congress for the first time. The executive, Shou Chew, faced roughly five hours of harsh questioning by lawmakers from both parties about China’s ties to the company, data privacy and the app’s effects on children. Many lawmakers cited the Chinese statement as evidence that the app could be subject to influence from Beijing.
The administration has long feared that Beijing could force TikTok to hand over the sensitive data of American users, or use its powerful content recommendation algorithm to spread propaganda. It has been negotiating a deal that would allow the app to continue to operate in the United States if it stores its US users’ data on domestic servers.
But senior administration officials have opposed that proposal, recently making it clear they would prefer the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, sell it off.
Now, the administration will have to weigh whether to push the ban on the app, isolating it from its 150 million US users. But that’s legally tricky: Federal courts ruled that President Donald J. Trump did not have the authority to ban TikTok from the Apple and Google app stores.
This month, the White House backed a bipartisan Senate bill that would give the Commerce Department clear power to ban any app that endangers the safety of Americans. If approved, the administration will likely have a stronger legal basis for banning TikTok.
The administration could also review the agreement it had negotiated for TikTok to store the data of its American users on Oracle servers in the United States. Oracle would also monitor how TikTok’s algorithm recommends content, as a potential safeguard against the app being used to spread misinformation and Chinese government propaganda.
But that proposal was met with skepticism from some of the administration’s top players, including in the Justice Department and the White House, prompting the administration to push for a sale.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Managing TikTok has become more complicated since Trump urged ByteDance to sell it off in 2020. China later reviewed a list of protected technologies, which analysts say would require ByteDance to get government permission to sell the app to a US buyer. TikTok’s most valuable technology is its recommendation algorithm, the source of its success in attracting and retaining users around the world.
Additionally, court rulings against banning TikTok from app stores removed crucial leverage the White House had used to get ByteDance to consider selling.
Any decision to remove the app, whether by banning it in some way in the United States or blocking further downloads, may also be more politically fraught for Biden than it would have been for Trump. TikTok has millions more users in the United States than in 2020.
But the roughly five-hour hearing with Chew on Thursday showed that the political demand for action is mounting in Washington. About four dozen lawmakers have targeted Chew, with many accusing his company of having close ties to the Chinese government.
He tried to distance himself and TikTok from China, but lawmakers expressed skepticism.
“When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, he indicated interest in taking steps to earn our trust,” said Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Massachusetts. “And, for me, it hasn’t happened today until now.”
Chew repeatedly told lawmakers that the company’s plan to keep user data in the United States on servers operated by Oracle, which he calls Project Texas, would resolve their concerns. But they didn’t seem to buy it.
“With all due respect, the phrase ‘No company can be perfect’ has been overused today,” said Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minnesota. “Clearly, in the more than three hours that he’s been before us today, what he’s saying about the Texas Project just doesn’t pass the sniff test.”
David McCabe reported from Washington and Chang Che from Seoul.
