ByteDance Inc. is planning to move operations for its massively popular TikTok app away from other parts of its business to appease those in the U.S. government who think the app could be a threat to national security, according to a report by Reuters today.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Chinese company is aiming to convince the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, that the data it collects on U.S. citizens will not be exploited by the Chinese government.

After buying U.S.-based app Musical.ly in 2017, TikTok attracted a lot of American customers in a short period of time. The app has been downloaded more than 110 million times, a fact that some people inside the U.S. government means TikTok has become a “threat we cannot ignore.”

This week the app was criticized for allegedly handing out a ban to a girl who claims all she did was point out the inhumane treatment of Uighur Muslims inside China. There have also been concerns that TikTok might have censored other content relating to matters that are sensitive to the Communist Party of China.

TikTok has said numerous times that no data is shared with the Chinese government and it doesn’t censor content to avoid upsetting that government. The CFIUS probe, according to Reuters, is focused on the handling of data and not the issue of censorship.

“ByteDance started to separate TikTok operationally before CFIUS approached it in October, because it wanted some of its staff to focus on TikTok, according to the sources,” said Reuters. “It completed the separation of TikTok’s product and business development, marketing and legal teams from those of its Chinese social media app Douyin in the third quarter of this year.”

Moreover, a team will be set up in Mountain View, California to oversee all aspects of data management and make decisions concerning what data can be seen by engineers based in China.

TikTok will also hire more U.S.-based engineers so it can reduce the number of staff working in China. It’s reported that there are 400 people in the U.S. working for TikTok, although the company has 50,000 employees worldwide.

Image: TikTok