Despite the passage of a bill requiring TikTok to divest itself from its parent company or face a ban in the United States, China’s ByteDance says it has no plans to sell the social media company’s U.S. operations.
In a post on Toutiao, another social media platform the company owns, ByteDance said reports the company was exploring a sale “are untrue.” (The Information reported Thursday that ByteDance was mulling a sale of TikTok’s U.S. business, but without the site’s recommendation algorithm.)
CEO Shou Chew, upon passage of the bill, vowed to fight back, saying the company will take up the issue with the courts. “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” Chew said in a two-minute video. “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
TikTok has already fought off one ban attempt: A federal judge sided with the company in 2020 after then President Donald Trump attempted to shut the app down.
It’s not just the huge audience TikTok has cultivated in the U.S. that ByteDance is looking to protect. The algorithm that TikTok uses to keep those users hooked is the key to its success, and the company has worked hard to protect it previously.
Selling U.S. operations would not be a devastating hit to the company financially, given TikTok’s global success, but Chew has said that separating American users could “break” the app.
In addition, Beijing has implied that it will not allow a forced sale of TikTok. Despite all of that, buyers have been lining up for the opportunity to take over the social media site.