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Trump Grants TikTok 7 Day Extension To Sell Its US Operations

5 mins read

The Trump administration on Wednesday granted ByteDance, owner of the short-form video app TikTok, a seven-day extension to sell its U.S. operations, according to a Treasury Department spokesperson. 

President Donald Trump had previously required Chinese company ByteDance to sell its U.S. business by Nov. 12. TikTok filed for an extension from the Committee on Foreign Investment, which is responsible for reviewing national security risks. 

The committee has pushed back the deadline twice. The company now has until Dec. 4 to complete its proposed takeover deal by Oracle and Walmart, CNN Business reported. 

“The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has granted ByteDance a one-week extension, from November 27, 2020 to December 4, 2020, to allow time to review a revised submission that the Committee recently received,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said on Wednesday. 

Why is Trump banning TikTok?

Trump has previously claimed that TikTok is a danger to national security. In August, he issued an executive order that effectively banned Americans from engaging in any business dealings with Byte Dance. However, his claims have since been denied by the company and doubted by cybersecurity experts.

The U.S. Commerce Department followed suit by attempting to ban TikTok from app stores in September. The agency also said they plan to ban TikTok’s traffic in internet companies. Federal judges blocked both measures, according to Variety

The Trump administration submitted legal filings where they argued that a number of TikTok users had boasted of ordering tickets to Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June. The bogus orders allegedly led to empty seats at the president’s rally. 

Brad Parscale, chairman of the Trump campaign, slammed the claim that TikTok users were responsible for the low attendance, claiming the “phony ticket requests” were never calculated in their attendee pool. 

“Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work. Registering for a rally means you’ve RSVP’ed with a cell phone number, and we constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool,” Parscale wrote in a statement

“These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking. What makes this lame attempt at hacking our events even more foolish is the fact that every rally is general admission — entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and prior registration is not required,” he added.

What is TikTok’s proposed takeover deal with Oracle and Walmart?

Oracle and Walmart are set to launch TikTok Global next year—a new company that they would have a combined 20% stake in. Four of the five members on the company’s board of directors are expected to be American. 

TikTok Global is set to create 25,000 jobs in the United States as an expansion of its global headquarters. The new company will also pay $5 billion in tax dollars to the U.S. Treasury Department. 

TikTok’s partnership with Walmart will lead to the creation of an education program that will deliver an AI-driven online curriculum to children. The curriculum will include courses in math, reading, science, history, and computer engineering, CNET reported.

Oracle will host all user data in the United States on its cloud platform. It will also be responsible for securing associated computer systems. 

“We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world,” Oracle CEO Safra Catz said. “This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”

Danielle Joyce Ong

Danielle is a local journalist with a passion for exploring stories related to crime and politics. When Danielle isn't busy writing or reading, she is usually exploring the great outdoors and all the hiking trails in the Bay.