Beijing (AFP)

The founder of ByteDance, parent company of the social network TikTok threatened with ban in the United States, said Monday that his teams were working hard to obtain "the best possible outcome" to the crisis, according to an official Chinese media.

His remarks come as discussions continue between the Beijing-based group and Microsoft for the latter to buy the American branch of the video platform, popular with young people.

TikTok is widely used by 15-25 year olds and has around one billion users worldwide. It allows you to create, share and view short clips, generally musical, quirky or humorous.

In a context of Sino-American tensions, the United States has accused the platform for several months of being able to be used by China for surveillance purposes. However, they have not provided any evidence so far.

TikTok has always strongly denied any data sharing with Beijing.

"TikTok could be forced to sell its American operations" and "TikTok products could be blocked in the United States," Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, said in an email sent to his employees and quoted by the official Beijing Daily. .

"We are facing increased external pressure in certain markets. In recent weeks, the teams involved in the response (to this crisis) have been taking turns day and night and working overtime. This in order to obtain the best possible outcome", he continued.

Microsoft confirmed on Sunday that negotiations were still underway to buy TikTok's US arm from ByteDance. The Seattle-based computer giant is hoping the talks will be concluded by September 15.

In recent days, Donald Trump and his advisers have been making threats against the application. The US president said on Friday that he wanted to ban TikTok and was even opposed to a takeover by Microsoft.

A position that he relaxed after the opposition of many users of the social network. In particular that of content creators who earn income from their videos published on the application.

"We do not agree with this decision" to force the sale of TikTok, said Zhang Yiming. "Because we have always been committed to ensuring the security of user data, as well as the neutrality and transparency of the platform."

Donald Trump should "take action in the next few days" against TikTok and other applications related to Chinese companies, said Sunday the chief of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo.

© 2020 AFP