TikTok CEO addresses whether he'll sell app saying it's 'not feasible' to divest from parent company ByteDance

TikTok's CEO insinuated that the popular app is not up for sale, saying it's 'not feasible' to divest from parent company ByteDance despite a forthcoming bid by Donald Trump's former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and a group of investors. 

Mnuchin announced the bid less than 24 hours after the House passed a bill 352-65 that would force its Chinese-backed parent company ByteDance to divest the social media app or face a ban in the U.S.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was on Capitol Hill Thursday for a trip he described as 'pre-planned' before yesterday's vote. 

He is staging a last-ditch effort to try and get senators to tank the House-passed legislation that President Joe Biden has already said he would sign.

When asked by a reporter why he won't sell the app, Chew replied: 'We've looked at it and it's not feasible to do whatever the bill thinks it does.'

When pressed on whether he meant to divest to ByteDance, the CEO responded: 'This bill, in all the details you can read, go through the details, this would lead to banning of the app in the country.' 

'There's a lot of misinformation out there,' Chew continued. 'I haven't heard exactly what we've done is wrong.'

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was on Capitol Hill Thursday for a trip he described as 'pre-planned' before yesterday's vote

'As you know, it's very disappointing for us that the bill passed in the House of Representatives. We looked at it - this is a bad bill...that will result in a ban.'

The legislation advanced Wednesday despite calls from Donald Trump and Elon Musk to go against the bill and fury from teenagers not to stop them getting on the wildly popular video platform.

Now, senators will decide whether the national security threat posed by TikTok is worth the headache from constituents who love the app, and have been calling lawmakers nonstop asking them to vote against the measure. The social media company boasts over 150 million American users.

'I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,' Mnuchin told CNBC's 'Squawk Box' on Thursday morning. 'It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok. 

'This should be owned by U.S. businesses,' he added. 'There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.'

The House China Select Committee says Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through ByteDance are using TikTok to spy on its U.S. users' locations and dictate its algorithm to conduct influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.

ByteDance would have 165 days after the law is signed to divest from TikTok. If it does not, app stores and web hosting platforms would not be allowed to distribute it in the U.S.

The bill has a good shot of becoming law as a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed the bill and Joe Biden confirmed that he would sign it if it also passes the Senate.

Still, as the bill has gained more steam, so too has its opposition. Trump threw cold water on it last week, insisting if TikTok is banned its rival Facebook would 'double their business.'

'I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better,' Trump wrote in a social media post. 'They are a true Enemy of the People!' 

He is staging a last-ditch effort to try and get senators to tank the House-passed legislation that President Joe Biden has already said he would sign

Lawmakers accused TikTok of providing its U.S. user data to its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, which they say has connections to the Chinese Communist Party

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has come out against the TikTok bill, claiming it could be used as a form of government suppression

Elon Musk joined Trump in opposing the effort to reign in TikTok's influence, calling it government 'censorship,' in a post on X Tuesday.

'This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control! If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite 'foreign control' as the issue, but it does not,' Musk stated.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also voted against the bill, mentioning Musk by name, praising him for restoring her account on X after it was formerly banned and decrying the 'Pandora's Box' this bill could open. 

'What's to stop the U.S. government in the future from forcing the sale of another social media company claiming it is protecting American's data from foreign adversaries?'

'I believe this bill can cause future problems. It's opening Pandora's Box and I am opposed to this bill,' Greene said Wednesday on the House floor.