While the $ 1 billion acquisition was completed two years ago, US lawmakers have asked TikTok for an investigation in recent weeks, worried that the Chinese company may be censoring content and doubts about how it stores personal data.
TikTok has become increasingly popular among American teenagers at a time of growing tension between the United States and China over trade and technology transfers.
About 60% of the 26.5 million monthly active users of TikTok in the United States are between 16 and 24 years old, the company said earlier this year.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews the business of foreign buyers for possible national security risks, has begun reviewing the acquisition of Musical.ly, sources said.
TikTok did not ask CFIUS for authorization when it bought the company, they added, which gives the security panel competition to investigate it now.
CFIUS is in talks with TikTok to take measures that prevent it from having to dispose of Musical.ly's assets, sources said.
The details of those conversations, which CFIUS refers to as mitigation, could not be known, nor were the concerns of the regulator.
"While we cannot comment on the ongoing regulatory processes, TikTok has made it clear that our highest priority is to gain the trust of users and regulators in the United States," said a TikTok spokesman.
The US Department of the Treasury, which heads CFIUS, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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