As the September 20 deadline for TikTok quickly approaches, the app’s parent company ByteDance has reportedly rejected Microsoft’s bid to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations. The company is now expected to go with the technology corporation Oracle as its “trusted tech partner,” although this deal is reportedly “not being structured as an outright sale.”
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” Microsoft explained in statement. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”
Back in July U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was looking into banning TikTok on American shores due to privacy concerns over user data, as ByteDance is a Chinese technology company. Pompeo and other figures in the Trump administration have been convinced that the app was a threat to national security, although ByteDance maintain that their user data is kept within the U.S. outside of the Chinese government’s influence.
The following month Trump banned the app via executive order, unless it was purchased by an American company by September 20. TikTok has since sued the administration over due process violation.
As TikTok comes under fire, major tech companies such as Spotify and Facebook have been racing toward creating their own apps that are similar to TikTok. The app has still made progress however, and recently signed distribution deal with UnitedMasters.
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