Republican senators back Bytedance’s plan to sell TikTok’s US operations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several Republican senators on Sunday backed a plan by China’s ByteDance to divest the U.S. operations of TikTok after President Donald Trump said on Friday he had decided to ban the popular short-video app.

Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on Twitter that a divestment “and purchase by U.S. company is win-win.”

Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, echoed Cornyn but added that “tight security measures need to be part of any deal in order to protect consumer data and ensure no foreign access.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told ABC on Sunday that the Committee on Foreign Investment on the United States “agrees that TikTok cannot stay in the current format because it risks sending back information on 100 million Americans.”