It's one wolf "protecting" its sheep from another wolf.
Discussion
I realize you're using quotes, but let's be totally blatant here. The US Intelligence community wants to be the only game in town.
They buy data about us from every platform possible, and probably pay for some exclusivity too. They also use those platforms to manipulate masses.
Forcing the sale of TikTok to a US Intelligence owned corporation would not only give them more data about us, and deny the CCP Intelligence a lot of data and influence, but also set the precedents of US Federal agencies dictating what apps the citizens use, and using government to coerce companies to hand their business over.