The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is facing new roadblocks in its effort to address the national security concerns around TikTok after the FBI warned about the dangers of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app and five states banned it from employee phones.
The public critique from FBI Director Christopher Wray, the state bans and growing objections from Congress are building pressure on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.. The panel is seeking a way to let TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., keep operating in the U.S. while also preventing the possibility that the Chinese government could access user data.
A final agreement has been stalled at the Justice Department, and questions remain about whether any deal could keep all U.S. users’ data from being leaked to the Chinese government. A plan would be expected to build on an arrangement announced by TikTok in June under which U.S. user traffic is routed through servers maintained by Oracle Corp.