TikTok calls for review as deadline to sell US assets set to expire

TikTok said it has not heard from the committee in weeks about the November 12 deadline for its parent company ByteDance to sell off US assets over national security concerns, reports The Verge.

San Francisco: As the deadline for TikTok to sell its US assets expires on Thursday, the Chinese short-video making app has filed a petition in a US Court of Appeals, calling for a review of actions by the Trump administrations Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFUIS).

TikTok said it has not heard from the committee in weeks about the November 12 deadline for its parent company ByteDance to sell off US assets over national security concerns, reports The Verge.

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The Trump committee set the deadline to divest the company of “any tangible or intangible assets or property, wherever located, used to enable or support ByteDance’s operation of the TikTok application in the United States”.

The Chinese short-video making app TikTok last month got reprieve from the ban imposed by the Trump administration when a federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked the government from moving ahead with restrictions that would have effectively shut down the app from November 12.

“Today, with the November 12 CFIUS deadline imminent and without an extension in hand, we have no choice but to file a petition in court to defend our rights and those of our more than 1,500 employees in the US,” TikTok said in a statement.

“We remain committed to working with the Administration — as we have all along — to resolve the issues it has raised, but our legal challenge today is a protection to ensure these discussions can take place.”

Oracle and Walmart have come together to save TikTok from the ban, forming a new company called TikTok Global which will be headquartered in the US.

Oracle announced it was chosen as TikTok’s secure cloud provider and will become a minority investor with a 12.5 per cent stake.

Walmart said it has tentatively agreed to a purchase 7.5 per cent stake in TikTok and its CEO Doug McMillon would serve as one of the five board members of the newly-created company.

The parent company ByteDance will own the remaining 80 per cent of TikTok.