(CNN Business)People working on the issue within the Trump administration expect the President will sign an order to force Chinese company ByteDance to sell the US operations of TikTok, its popular short-form video app, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The move is aimed at resolving policymakers’ concerns that the foreign-owned TikTok may be a national security risk. The US government is conducting a national security review of TikTok and is preparing to make a policy recommendation to Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters this week at the White House.
ByteDance has been considering changes to its corporate structure and had reportedly already been looking into the possibility of selling a majority stake in TikTok.Microsoft (MSFT) is in talks to acquire TikTok, according to the New York Times, citing a person with knowledge of the discussions. Microsoft declined to comment to CNN Business.Read MoreCritics of TikTok worry that the data it collects on its US users could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, though TikTok has said it stores its data outside of China and that it would resist any attempts by Beijing to seize the information.
Cybersecurity experts have said TikTok’s potential risk to national security is largely theoretical and that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok’s user data has been compromised by Chinese intelligence.CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed to this story.
Source: edition.cnn.com