The Trump administration was adamant about banning TikTok or forcing a sale to a US company last year, but then multiple deadlines passed without anything happening before the end of 2020. Now after previously pressing pause on the matter, the Biden administration and TikTok say they will take more time to discuss the situation with a new June 11 deadline on further action.
While the Trump admin gave the thumbs up to Oracle and Walmart purchasing TikTok’s US operations back in September, the US probably didn’t have grounds to force the sale. There were multiple legal challenges to the Trump admin action and China would have reportedly rather just shut down the service in the US than to see it be sold.
Back in February, the Biden administration said that it was pausing work on the matter as it considered a more “comprehensive approach.”
“We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to securing U.S. data that addresses the full range of threats we face,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said. “This includes the risk posed by Chinese apps and other software that operate in the U.S. In the coming months, we expect to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face.”
Now, reported by AdWeek’s Scott Nover (h/t Alex Heath), the Biden admin and TikTok have submitted a joint report to The Commerce Department that says they will take more time to discuss next steps with a new deadline of June 11 (h/t Alex Heath).
TikTok was the most downloaded app for 2020, surpassing Facebook. And that was also true for last month according to recent data from Sensor Tower. With what we’ve heard from the current White House so far, it’s taking a more collaborative approach to ensuring national security when it comes to Chinese apps. Time will tell what comes from the review in the weeks ahead.
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