Last updated on December 8th, 2022 at 02:50 pm
Sale of American business TikTok postponed indefinitely
A US plan to forcibly sell the short video service TikTok to a group of companies, including Walmart and Oracle, has been postponed indefinitely. Those in the know say this is due to President-elect Biden’s review of the Trump administration’s measures to address potential security threats from China.
The sale of TikTok’s US business, initiated last fall by then US President Donald Trump, has been dragged out by lawsuits filed by ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, against the US government.
According to sources, negotiations are currently underway between the board of ByteDance and representatives of the US national security services. These discussions are reportedly focused on data security and how to prevent the Chinese government from accessing the information TikTok collects about American users. However, they are not expected to be completed soon.
US National Security Council spokesman Emily Horne says her agency plans to develop comprehensive data protection tools for US users that address the full range of threats facing the United States. In the coming months, the National Security Council will look at specific cases to identify areas that require special attention.
Recall that last year; Trump decided to ban TikTok in the United States as long as the service belongs to a Chinese company. A few days later, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States formally ordered ByteDance to cease doing business in the United States. In November, TikTok applied to a federal appeals court in Washington to overturn a decision to sell its American business. Service representatives said they are ready to consider other ways to solve the problem. This case is still pending. The latest decree, dated December 7, states that Trump’s order is likely to go beyond his mandate.
According to those familiar with the matter, negotiations between TikTok and the Foreign Investment Committee in the United States are still ongoing, and one of the possible solutions to the problem is the introduction of a trusted third party authorized to store and process TikTok data, which does not require the direct sale of the service.
According to reliable sources, any agreement the parties come to is likely to be different from the requirements put forward by Trump last fall. Besides, the sale of TikTok is incredibly complicated by the need for approval from Chinese regulatory authorities. Last year, the Chinese government imposed new export restrictions on specific social media software algorithms that TikTok also uses, making it much more difficult to close a deal to sell its American business.
It is expected that on February 18, the American government will give an official response to the TikTok lawsuit, which will decide the fate of the service. Until then, the head of ByteDance encourages company employees to work as usual. Besides, next week, the future of the ban in the United States of eight Chinese payment services, including AliPay and WeChat, will become known.
Biden will likely soften measures about these services. Hopefully, the U.S. National Security Adviser and White House China Policy Coordinator criticized Trump’s crackdown on Chinese tech companies such as Huawei. Other American officials also support their statements.
