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TikTok is controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance

TikTok launched internationally in September 2017. Its parent company, ByteDance, purchased Musical.ly, a social app that was growing in popularity in the U.S., for $1 billion in November 2017, and the two were merged in August 2018. In just a few years, it has quickly amassed a user base of nearly 92 million in the U.S. In particular, the app has found a niche among teens and young adults — TikTok has surpassed Instagram as U.S. teenagers’ second-favorite social media app, after Snapchat, according to an October 2020 report by Piper Sandler.

Last year, then-President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok in the United States or force the company to merge with a U.S. company. The Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has expressed national security concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership, with Pompeo saying at one point that TikTok could be ‘feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.’

TikTok has consistently denied those claims, ‘We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.’ In the company’s last four semi-annual transparency reports, it does not report a single request from the Chinese government for user data.

ByteDance’s leadership, which is based in China, provides direction and approval for all types of decision-making, whether they are minor contracts or key strategies. As a result, employees are required to follow the guidelines despite of being in different timelines.

TikTok’s reliance on ByteDance extends to its technology as well. According to former employees, Chinese ByteDance employees are in charge of nearly all TikTok product development.

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