In an internal note addressed to the employees at ByteDance, the company that owns the video app TikTok, it has been clarified that the company does not intend selling any of its shares, partially or fully. This communication is in response to some media reports claiming that ByteDance was planning to sell off TikTok to some US company.

The report on the sell-off is based on the assumption that the company wants to tackle concerns expressed in several quarters in the US that the Chinese app is not safe to use by US citizens. The suspicion raised is that the Chinese government has access to the personal data collected by the app. ByteDance has been trying to convey that all the data that it has collected on its app is hosted in servers in the US and that these are not accessible by the Chinese government.

The internal company note written by the head of TikTok has allayed the apprehensions and has said the media reports appearing on the subject are all false. The note confirms that the media houses had checked with them and they had denied the suggestions. The senior executive has added that the company has neither held any discussions with any investors nor does it have any intentions of doing so either.

There does appear to be some efforts, however, on the part of the company to make sure its US operations are kept separate from its Chinese moorings.

This may have come about following the development in the case of ByteDance acquiring Musical.ly, a social media app in the US at a cost of $1 billion. This deal is being looked into by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. ByteDance wants to remain safe from any actions by the US authorities.