ByteDance in Talks With US to Avoid Selling TikTok: Report

TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing.

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 10 September 2020 10:34 IST
Highlights
  • Talks between ByteDance and the US have been taking place for months
  • ByteDance has vowed to "strictly abide" by new export rules in China
  • The rules could complicate a sale of the business as demanded by Trump
ByteDance in Talks With US to Avoid Selling TikTok: Report

China's commerce ministry added "civilian use" to a list of technologies that are restricted for export

Chinese Internet giant ByteDance is in talks with the US about ways it might avoid having to sell its TikTok operations here, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

TikTok has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and President Donald Trump gave Americans a deadline to stop doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance, effectively compelling a sale of the app to a US company.

Walmart has joined forces with Microsoft in negotiations to buy TikTok. Oracle is also reported to be interested in TikTok.

TikTok, which has been downloaded 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times around the world, has filed a lawsuit challenging the crackdown by the US government.

The suit contends that Trump's order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not "an unusual and extraordinary threat."

Advertisement

Trump claims that TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on people for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage.

TikTok, used by as many as a billion people worldwide to make quirky, short-form videos on their cellphones, has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing.

Talks between ByteDance and the US have been taking place for months but have grown more urgent as the deadline set by Trump nears, according to the Journal report.

Advertisement

At least one of TikTok's major investors was part of a group that met recently with representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency to discuss data security, the Journal reported, citing someone familiar with the matter.

Advertisement

Trump last week repeated his demand for a piece of the action from any sale of TikTok's US operations for forcing such a deal.

"Well, I told them that they have until September 15th to make a deal; after that, we close it up in this country," Trump told journalists.

"And I said that the United States has to be compensated - well compensated - because we are the ones that are making it possible, and so we should be compensated."

Critics have slammed Trump's call for the US government to get a cut of the deal, contending that it appears unconstitutional and akin to extortion.

Meanwhile, ByteDance has vowed to "strictly abide" by new export rules in China which could potentially complicate a sale of the business as demanded by Trump.

China's commerce ministry added "civilian use" to a list of technologies that are restricted for export.

The new regulations could make it more difficult for ByteDance to sell the wildly popular video app, which features clips of everything from dance routines and hair-dye tutorials to jokes about daily life and politics.


Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: TikTok, ByteDance, US China trade wars
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Here's How Much the Vivo X Fold 5 and Vivo X200 FE Might Cost in India
  2. Apple Plans to Launch M5-Powered MacBook Pro This Year: Report
  3. Tecno Pova 7 5G, Pova 7 Pro 5G Launched in India: Price, Availability
  4. OTT Releases This Week: Kaalidhar Laapata, Thug Life, The Good Wife, and More
  5. Madras Matinee Now Available for Streaming on Multiple OTT Platforms
  1. NASA TEMPO Satellite to Continue Tracking Pollution Hourly from Space Until 2026
  2. Russia Launches Progress 92 Cargo Freighter with 3 Tons of Supplies to the ISS Successfully
  3. Sidlingu 2 Streaming Now on Prime Video: Know Everything About This Kannada Comedy Drama
  4. Madras Matinee Now Available for Streaming on Multiple OTT Platforms
  5. Pune Highway Now Available for Streaming on Amazon Prime Video: What You Need to Know
  6. Mivi AI Buds TWS Earphones Launched in India With In-Built AI Assistant
  7. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7 First-Party Cases and Screen Protectors Leaked: See Colours
  8. Nvidia Briefly on Track to Become World's Most Valuable Company Ever
  9. iQOO 13 Green Colour Variant Launched in India: Check Price, Availability
  10. Meta Poaches CEO of Ilya Sutskever's Startup in AI Talent War
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.