Popular video-sharing platform TikTok could face a ban in the United States after the House of Representatives passed a bill last week. The move was initiated by U.S. politicians who want TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations to U.S. owners. But it has sparked heated debates about data privacy, political misinformation and the power dynamics between China and the United States. The legislative effort was led by Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary during the Trump administration, and a group of his influential political associates.

Here’s everything you need to know about the TikTok ownership dispute:

Why do American politicians want to ban TikTok?

TikTok’s popularity makes it a prime target for election-year data privacy concerns and the spread of political misinformation, especially due to its Beijing-based owner ByteDance.

Some U.S. politicians are concerned that China can access U.S. users’ data, so they want ownership to remain with China.

President Joe Biden has said he will sign the bill into law if it passes Congress.

ByteDance has repeatedly said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities, but U.S. lawmakers are unconvinced. However, they did not provide any evidence that TikTok allegedly poses a national security risk.

Is TikTok really Chinese?

A CNN According to reports, TikTok has never operated in mainland China. Its Singapore CEO Shou Chew told U.S. officials this repeatedly when questioned by them.

Citing U.S. court documents, the media said TikTok was first registered in California in April 2015. The app has never existed in China and was pulled from Hong Kong in July 2020 when Beijing implemented a national security law.

In China, a different version of the short video app called Douyin exists, which was launched in 2016, a year before the company launched TikTok, the international version of the app.

But ByteDance’s ownership through a complex, multi-tiered corporate structure raises many questions about TikTok. Although Mr. Zhou insisted when questioned in March 2023 that TikTok had never operated in China, he did not directly answer the ownership question.

The app is owned by TikTok LLC, registered in Culver City, Delaware, California. It is controlled by TikTok Limited, which is registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Shanghai. The company is ultimately owned by ByteDance Ltd., which is also incorporated in the Cayman Islands and is headquartered in Beijing.

What is ByteDance?

The company was established in Beijing in 2012. Washington postIts founder Zhang Yiming is a software engineer turned entrepreneur whose vision is to use big data and machine learning to analyze and curate content based on user preferences.

ByteDance is sometimes called an “app factory” because of the vast number of digital products it has created in recent years. One of the most popular is the AI-powered news aggregator Toutiao, used primarily in China.

ByteDance has been headquartered in Beijing since its inception. The company has more than 110,000 employees worldwide and is valued at $268 billion. A press release issued by TikTok last May stated that approximately 60% of Bytedance’s shares are “beneficially owned by global institutional investors such as The Carlyle Group, General Atlantic Group and Susquehanna International Group” and approximately 20% of the shares are “held by ByteDance’s global employees” and the remainder is owned by its founders.