The Trump administration has granted ByteDance a seven-day extension of an order directing it to sell TikTok.
New court filings from TikTok reveal that the deadline is now December 4th. Following pressure from the Trump administration, ByteDance has been in talks with Oracle and Walmart for months to finalize a deal that would shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity.
Reuters reports that the extension was granted so that the government could review a new “revised submission” by the company to the Committee on Foreign Investment.
Federal courts have also blocked several legal challenges that have proposed bans against the app in some form, including transaction curbs.
Another order seeking to ban Apple and Google from allowing new U.S. users to download TikTok by September 27th had also been blocked.
It’s worth noting that as a new administration looms, it’s possible that the deal may never actually be finalized depending on the new government’s priorities. This latest deadline extension comes as TikTok said it hadn’t heard from the Trump administration in weeks.
However, sources have said that TikTok is still interested in its partnership with Oracle and Walmart to satisfy security concerns, even if President-elect Joe Biden isn’t as adamant about the situation.
Trump has alleged that the social media platform poses a national security risk because the Chinese government could access data on American users. TikTok has repeatedly denied this claim, but wants to move forward with the deal to satisfy concerns.
Source: Reuters
