Government acquires stake in TikTok

According to Donald Trump, the hugely popular video app TikTok was by no means a mere online platform for a self-presenting youth, but rather a potential threat to US national security. His successor Joe Biden, on the other hand, canceled the planned ban of the app: Parent company ByteDance was finally able to make convincing arguments that the Chinese government did not exert any influence on its international operations. But just a few months later, the debate is about to flare up again, with the Chinese unicorn now in dire need of explanation. That’s because, as technology publication The Information reported, the Chinese party-state has bought itself directly into the ByteDance group. Since the end of April, It owns a stake of one percent in the Beijing-based company ByteDance Technology.