Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether Bytedance would be required to divest ownership of TikTok under the terms of the provision on Foreign power acquisition of news media organisations added by the Government to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill.

The new terms introduced in our amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC) are based on the Enterprise Act 2002, and will therefore only apply to newspapers and news magazines given the unique role these publications play in contributing to the health of our democracy by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate.

These changes would not cover online news providers or online intermediaries, including social media platforms such as TikTok.