TikTok is owned by its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance. Sixty percent of the company is owned by investors including Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, and Susquehanna International Group. The remaining 40% is divided between ByteDance employees and the founder of ByteDance.
TikTok is not available in mainland China and has headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore.
But its parent company does have to comply with Chinese law because it operates other video first platforms such as, the Chinese-equivalent of TikTok. The Chinese government therefore has a “golden share” of one of its subsidiaries, Douyin, owning about 1% of that app.
Why is the U.S. banning TikTok?
Congress passed a TikTok ban as part of a foreign aid supplemental package, citing national security concerns. Lawmakers were particularly concerned that the company could share data with the Chinese government or interfere with users’ algorithms in a way that would benefit the foreign government. Chinese national security laws require any companies or organizations to cooperate with the country’s national intelligence efforts.
“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell said in. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel.”
Already, the app is not permitted on any government-owned devices in the U.S. Other countries, including India have banned TikTok for all users since 2020, while Australia and Canada similarly forbade TikTok from operating on any devices issued by the federal government.