Oracle's TikTok deal fails to resolve US security concerns [u]
Oracle's bid for the U.S. operations of social media platform TikTok does not fully resolve White House national security concerns, according to a new report.
Credit: Kon Karampelas
On Sunday, it was reported that Microsoft's bid to acquire TikTok's U.S. arm had failed and that Oracle had closed a deal with developer ByteDance. The Chinese parent company has until Sept. 20 to ink a deal to avoid a ban on TikTok in the U.S.
President Donald Trump has the authority to sign off on the acquisition, but Bloomberg reports that the Oracle and TikTok deal falls short of resolving national security concerns about Chinese espionage. Currently, the agreement is still being negotiated between administration officials and the two companies. Addressing those security concerns, which could include barring ByteDance's access to U.S. data, could be the key to government approval.
The structure of the deal is still unclear. Earlier in September, ByteDance was said to be in talks with the U.S. government to avoid a full sale of TikTok's operations in the country. Under terms of the deal, Oracle would be granted full access to TikTok's source code to ensure no back doors exist to siphon personal information from the service's 100 million active American users, sources said.
Similarly, the talks are taking place against the backdrop of Chinese government restrictions on technology exports. On Friday, Beijing signaled that it would prefer to see TikTok shut down in the U.S. than sold to a domestic company.
Updated with details about source code access.
Credit: Kon Karampelas
On Sunday, it was reported that Microsoft's bid to acquire TikTok's U.S. arm had failed and that Oracle had closed a deal with developer ByteDance. The Chinese parent company has until Sept. 20 to ink a deal to avoid a ban on TikTok in the U.S.
President Donald Trump has the authority to sign off on the acquisition, but Bloomberg reports that the Oracle and TikTok deal falls short of resolving national security concerns about Chinese espionage. Currently, the agreement is still being negotiated between administration officials and the two companies. Addressing those security concerns, which could include barring ByteDance's access to U.S. data, could be the key to government approval.
The structure of the deal is still unclear. Earlier in September, ByteDance was said to be in talks with the U.S. government to avoid a full sale of TikTok's operations in the country. Under terms of the deal, Oracle would be granted full access to TikTok's source code to ensure no back doors exist to siphon personal information from the service's 100 million active American users, sources said.
Similarly, the talks are taking place against the backdrop of Chinese government restrictions on technology exports. On Friday, Beijing signaled that it would prefer to see TikTok shut down in the U.S. than sold to a domestic company.
Updated with details about source code access.
Comments
So glad the US administration is taking a tough stance.
Even if I’m gullible enough to dislike Bytedance for the sole reason that they are a foreign company ... um, are Americans ready to give up Samsung, Acer, Asus, Honda, Hyundai, Sharp, Toyota, Hisense, TCL, and literally hundreds of popular but foreign-owned brands from nearly every aspect of your lives?
then to force a deal that JUST HAPPENS to favour a big-dollar contributor to the president ... what an AMAZING coincidence!
Lack of any supporting evidence.
This is now the de facto US approach to basically anything successful coming out of China. Crush it on so called national security grounds. People are now even mocking that notion by labelling it National Insecurity grounds.
By successful I mean anything that could overshadow US capacity in the tech field.
So now we have extraterritorial moves as well as national moves without even a shred of evidence to support the claims.
We see Pompeo talking of 'clean' networks when the US has been making nefarious use of 'dirty' networks for decades (we have plenty of evidence of that btw).
We now have situations where SMIC (Chinese company) cannot sell products to Huawei (Chinese company) without 'permission' (licence) from Trump first.
This course of action is going to decimate US technological efforts the world over as companies race to rid themselves of even trace elements of US technology in their supply chains. This will mean devastation for US interests in the mid to long term.
It is estimated that with Huawei alone, the US tech sector is set to lose $18bn in revenues this year.
It is also causing problems with oversupply as companies are left with component overstock.
And last but not least, it is forcing China to vastly accelerate it plans for semiconductor self suffiency. That will be a huge nail in the coffin of US technological influence.
And for what? Election hopes?
That looks like a big price to pay going forward.
China already has caused lots of trouble and damage to American tech and in other fields. It's too late for USA to repair the damage already caused but worth try to stop further bleeding by China to USA and the rest of world.. Most uninformed Americans and non-Chinese citizens don't have clue about China's long term strategy to cripple other countries economy by buying/controlling there resources, become world's design(steal IP, copy bluntly,etc),manufacturing hub, than export at lower price. In few years, no one can compete against China. Yuan goes up, dollar,Euro,etc goes down.
Some of us don't like Mr. Trump or his style but one thing to admire is he has big balls to stand up against China which others in USA and rest of world is afraid of even trying.
Well then, with all due respect, you're completely ignorant of how the Chinese operate. ByteDance, as a Chinese company, is obligated to share all sorts of data with the communist Chinese government. The government is oppressive, and uses companies like them under threat of force to spy on us and steal intellectual property, user data, etc. This is a bipartisan issue. You'll notice that few Democrats have come out as hard as you have. TikTok represents a major U.S. security threat. Now, is Trump using it? Of course he is He's a president running for re-election. But that doesn't mean the threat isn't real. It doesn't mean it's "manufactured." And your theory about TikTok users "embarrassing" him is thin at best. TikTok may have played some role in reduced attendance in Tulsa, but it's impossible to say how much.
The UK, on the other hand, has totally fucked themselves on trade, and with just about every potential trading partner, so China may be their only recourse. How does that work with UK's support of Hong Kong's fleeting democracy?
As for Avon b7's statements on "national security", I'll listen to him once he figures out that National Security policy is based on risk, and doesn't require the the same level of evidence of a criminal trial, ie you don't need a public "smoking gun".
Read an article today regarding more links of Huawei to Iran sales, this time a shell company that Huawei was connected with in Brazil, which will weight heavily on Meng Wanzhou in her trial, once she has been extradited to the U.S.
Huawei is a bad actor, especially in surveillance and telecom, and I'm happy that the EU is slowly coming around to limiting Huawei Telecom, based on what the Australia and the U.S. have known for years, and also on Huawei's state aid that undercuts other, trusted vendors like Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson.
I just saw an article that Tik Tok will be banned in the U.S. on Sunday.