TikTok Faces Deadline for Divesting US Operations

The U.S. Treasury Department and China-based ByteDance say they are focused on resolving a battle over U.S. security concerns that prompted President Donald Trump to order the company to divest its popular TikTok app by Thursday.Trump signed an Aug. 14 order setting a 90-day deadline as he alleged that if the app remains under the control of a Chinese company, then the Chinese government could spy on TikTok users.TikTok says it is not a security threat. It has been pursuing an agreement with Oracle and Walmart to shift TikTok’s U.S. operations to a new company, and earlier this week asked a court to authorize an extension after receiving “no substantive feedback” from the Trump administration about its proposed fix.”Facing continual new requests and no clarity on whether our proposed solutions would be accepted, we requested the 30-day extension that is expressly permitted in the August 14 order,” TikTok said in a statement Tuesday.The Treasury Department said Wednesday it “remains focused on reaching a resolution of the national security risks arising from ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly, in accordance with the August 14 order signed by the President, and we have been clear with ByteDance regarding the steps necessary to achieve that resolution.”TikTok has 100 million U.S. users.
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