ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the popular video-sharing platform TikTok, has announced that it does not plan to sell the business despite new US legislation that could force it to do so.
The US government passed a law that would require ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a potential ban in the United States.
In a post on its official Toutiao account, a social media platform owned by ByteDance, the company clarified its position: “ByteDance doesn’t have any plans to sell TikTok.”
Despite this statement, TikTok did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment on the matter.
Earlier this week, TikTok expressed its intention to legally challenge the new legislation, referring to it as “unconstitutional.”
ByteDance’s clarification followed reports that suggested the company might consider selling TikTok, albeit without the underlying algorithm that drives the app’s functionality.
ByteDance dismissed these reports, stating, “Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true.”
The new US law, signed by President Joe Biden, was introduced due to concerns that TikTok could potentially share user data with the Chinese government, a claim that TikTok has consistently denied.
However, the law does not lead to an immediate ban on TikTok.
Instead, it provides ByteDance with a nine-month timeframe to sell the business, with an additional three-month grace period before any enforcement of a ban could occur.
The potential deadline for the sale of TikTok would likely be in 2025, which means it could extend beyond the 2024 US presidential election, with enforcement depending on the incoming administration’s stance on the issue.
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