TikTok and the United States are still in controversy, according to a newspaper publication Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in which the government has asked the parent company to sell its share of the application if it does not want to be banned in the United States.

The app confirmed to AFP that it was indeed advised to break away from the Chinese group ByteDance.

TikTok reveals that the US has asked it to separate from its Chinese ownership group to avoid being banned

“If the goal is to protect national security, calling for a ban or alienation is unnecessary, as neither option solves the industry’s data access and transfer problems,” a TikTok spokesperson said. Wednesday, contacted by AFP.

“We remain convinced that the best way to address national security concerns is to protect U.S.-based user data and systems with robust third-party monitoring, investigation and verification,” the spokesperson added.

This also provoked the reaction of Chinese authorities who urged to “stop unjustified attacks” against the platform.

“Data security issues should not be used by some countries as a means to broaden the concept of national security, abuse state power and unreasonably repress other countries’ businesses,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

“The United States has not yet provided any evidence that TikTok threatens the national security of the United States,” it added.

The US newspaper’s publication states that the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government agency charged with evaluating the national security risks of all foreign investments, is in charge of this situation.

The White House banned federal agency officials from having the application on their devices, through a law that was ratified in early January. The European Commission and the Canadian government have recently made similar decisions for their civil servants’ mobile phones.