Kevin Wolf Quoted in Barron’s on Trump Admin.’s Options for Targeting TikTok

Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf has been quoted in the Barron’s story “The Latest Target in U.S.-China Tensions Is TikTok. Here’s How That Could Play Out.” The article reports that the Treasury Department is expected soon to brief the Trump administration about its national security review of the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok. Any move, the article says, could lead to a backlash from Beijing.

U.S. concerns about the app, according to Barron’s, include worries the company could be censoring content and spreading Chinese propaganda as well as fears over the safety of personal data. The article says that the Commerce Department is considering an interim rule that would give it wide discretion to force divestitures or, perhaps, unwind past transactions to buy equipment.

Wolf said that, if enacted, the rule could fill the gap in the government’s options between blacklisting a company through the Entity List and curtailing investment through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.