The movements occur after a few particularly tumultuous weeks for application.
Bytedance Ltd. said it is assessing changes in the business structure of its TikTok business as US concerns grow over the parent company’s Chinese origins.
Leaders discuss options such as creating a new board of directors for TikTok and creating a separate headquarters for the application outside of China to move its operations away from Beijing, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The app for short films and music TikTok currently does not have its own headquarters separate from Bytedance, which was founded in China and is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. TikTok is considering a number of locations for a global base, said the person familiar with the plans, asking not to be named to discuss information that is not public. Its five largest offices are located in Los Angeles, New York, London, Dublin and Singapore.
“We will progress in the best interest of our users, employees, artists, creators, partners and decision makers,” said TikTok in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the discussions.
The movements come after a particularly tumultuous few weeks for the application, which is one of the most downloaded in the United States and which is extremely popular with adolescents.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration is considering banning application in the United States as a possible means of fighting back against China for its management of the coronavirus. The United States is also concerned that Chinese society will censor politically sensitive content and has raised questions about how it stores personal data. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Americans not to download the app unless they want their private information to fall “into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”.
Bytedance is already facing an American national security review for its acquisition of Musical.ly, a startup that it then merged with TikTok. TikTok has repeatedly denied allegations that it would threaten the national security of the United States.
Earlier this week, TikTok also drew a new review from the Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice on its data practices, according to children’s privacy advocates who say they have been interviewed by the agencies. Several privacy groups alleged in May that the app was collecting information about children under the age of 13 without parental permission, in violation of both U.S. privacy law and previous privacy regulations. the FTC.
TikTok, which has been downloaded 2 billion times worldwide, has also been banned in India amid a border deadlock between the two countries. And it closed operations in Hong Kong after Beijing enacted broad powers to suppress threats to national security.
TikTok has already made a number of changes to its operations to strengthen its ties with the United States and distance itself from its Chinese roots. Former chief Alex Zhu, who is stationed in China, handed over the reins of the app in June to new CEO Kevin Mayer, a former Los Angeles-based executive of Walt Disney Co..
The company has made a hiring effort in Washington to put pressure on public servants and is setting up so-called transparency centers, which are expected to open later this year and offer app preview for policy makers and security advocates.
