TikTok sale to U.S. company unlikely to happen under Biden administration
Plans to force the sale of TikTok's American operation to Walmart Inc. and Oracle Corp. seems unlikely to happen, as President Biden reviews the app's risk to national security.
The Biden administration has begun looking into President Trump's long-waged war against the popular video app, TikTok. Currently, there are no concrete plans for resolving issues that the previous administration deemed dire.
"We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to securing U.S. data that addresses the full range of threats we face," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. "This includes the risk posed by Chinese apps and other software that operate in the U.S. In the coming months, we expect to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face."
Trump had long rallied against TikTok's parent company, China-based ByteDance, stating that the popular video app was a threat to American Data.
ByteDance has reiterated that the Chinese government has no access to American users' data, despite The Trump administration's allegations.
Trump's solution was to push ByteDance into selling its American operations to a U.S.-owned entity, such as Walmart, Oracle, or Microsoft, or ban the service within the U.S.
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to force the sale by September 20, 2020, the ban deadline was pushed back multiple times.
In November, the U.S. Commerce Department that it wouldn't enforce an order to shut down TikTok, and ultimately the ban never went into effect.
In December, it was reported that TikTok would not be given a new deadline or be banned, but instead, the situation would be maintained. The limbo would continue while TikTok talks to the U.S. government about a sale that would satisfy the Trump administration's concerns.
The Trump administration made one final effort in December to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols injunction that prohibited the Department of Commerce from imposing rules which restrict internet carriers from handling the social media service's data.
The Biden administration has begun looking into President Trump's long-waged war against the popular video app, TikTok. Currently, there are no concrete plans for resolving issues that the previous administration deemed dire.
"We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to securing U.S. data that addresses the full range of threats we face," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. "This includes the risk posed by Chinese apps and other software that operate in the U.S. In the coming months, we expect to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face."
Trump had long rallied against TikTok's parent company, China-based ByteDance, stating that the popular video app was a threat to American Data.
ByteDance has reiterated that the Chinese government has no access to American users' data, despite The Trump administration's allegations.
Trump's solution was to push ByteDance into selling its American operations to a U.S.-owned entity, such as Walmart, Oracle, or Microsoft, or ban the service within the U.S.
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to force the sale by September 20, 2020, the ban deadline was pushed back multiple times.
In November, the U.S. Commerce Department that it wouldn't enforce an order to shut down TikTok, and ultimately the ban never went into effect.
In December, it was reported that TikTok would not be given a new deadline or be banned, but instead, the situation would be maintained. The limbo would continue while TikTok talks to the U.S. government about a sale that would satisfy the Trump administration's concerns.
The Trump administration made one final effort in December to appeal U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols injunction that prohibited the Department of Commerce from imposing rules which restrict internet carriers from handling the social media service's data.
Comments
Trump's bruised ego was the only real threat to TIk Tok.
The proposed settlement, which lawyers in the case have called among the largest privacy-related payouts in history, applies to 89 million TikTok users in the U.S. whose personal data was allegedly tracked and sold to advertisers in violation of state and federal law ...
... the app “clandestinely vacuumed up” vast quantities of private and personally identifiable data that could be used to identify and surveil users without permission. Even information from draft videos that were never shared publicly on the app were mined by TikTok for data, the lawyers for the users alleged.
...TikTok was allegedly sending their information to servers in China, or in other countries where China-based employees could access the data.
Tiktok also shared information about users, without their consent, with Facebook, Google and other companies, the suit claims.
The proposed settlement, which still needs the court's approval, also calls for the company to change its data-collection practice.