TikTok confirmed this to AFP on Wednesday The US government has recommended that the application be disconnected from its owner, the Chinese group ByteDance, in order not to be banned in the United Statesas pressure mounts against the popular platform.

“If the goal is to protect national security, calling for a ban or alienation is not necessary. because none of the options solves the problems of the data access and transfer industry”, responded a TikTok spokesperson contacted by AFP.

“We remain convinced that this is the best way to address national security concerns is the protection of data and systems of users in the United Statesimmediately robust monitoring, investigation and third-party verificationthe spokesperson added.

According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other media outlets, the White House issued an ultimatum: if TikTok remains the property of ByteDance, it will be banned in the United States.

The platform is seen as a threat to national security by several members of Congress for belonging to a Chinese business group.

The shooting down of a Chinese balloon by the United States in February, accused of being a spy device resurfaced parliamentary attempts to veto the app, accused of giving Beijing access to user data from around the world, which TikTok denies.

The White House request comes from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government agency charged with assessing the national security risks of all foreign investment.

The government and finance ministry declined to comment.

TikTok, which has gone to great lengths to reassure politicians and the public about its integrity, counting on the federal agency CFIUS to find a compromise.

“The quickest and most effective way to address these concerns… is for CFIUS to approve the proposed agreement that we have been working on for nearly two years,” a spokesperson for the TikTok app said in late January. February.

The spokesperson was responding to discussion of a Republican bill that would give President Joe Biden the power to completely veto TikTok. The White House has already 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.

The application has overtaken YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in recent years in “time spent” by American adults on each of these platforms and on the heels of Netflix, according to Insider Intelligence.