Bytedance Announces Cancellation Of TikTok Sale To Oracle

Illustration (Image Credit: Hello I'M Nik / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - TikTok's parent company, Bytedance announced the cancellation of its plan to sell its business to a US company. As a result, the sale and purchase agreement that Walmart and Oracle had previously signed was canceled.

According to the South China Morning Post report, the two companies have suspended the TikTok purchase deal. Especially since Donald Trump is no longer the US President.

"The deal is primarily designed to meet the demands of the Trump administration," said the unnamed source, as reported by the New York Post, Thursday, February 18.

So far both TikTok and Oracle and Walmart have been reluctant to comment on the report. On the other hand, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, said the government was not taking "any new proactive steps" on TikTok.

"In general, we will evaluate comprehensively the risk to US data from TikTok and other potential threats," Psaki said.

For the time being the US federal Court has suspended a Trump administration order that would effectively ban TikTok from operating in the US.

In court filings, TikTok and the Department of Justice requested that the lawsuit be postponed so that the Biden government can review whether the planned ban is still needed or not.

In fact, neither Bytedance nor China are willing to release TikTok assets in America. In an editorial column published in the China Daily, the Chinese government said it had no reason to agree to a deal that it called "dirty and unfair" and based on "bullying and extortion."

They argue that TikTok's success has left the US feeling insecure, and are using national security reasons to have the platform shut down. Moreover, the short video application has generated revenues of more than 1 billion US dollars throughout 2020.