WASHINGTON – A US plan to force the sale of TikTok’s American operations to a group that includes Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. has been archived indefinitely, people familiar with the situation said, while President Biden conducts a comprehensive review of his predecessor’s efforts to address the potential security risks of Chinese technology companies.
TikTok’s business – led by then President Donald Trump – has stalled since last fall amid legal challenges to the U.S. government’s effort by China’s owner of TikTok, ByteDance Ltd.
Discussions continued between representatives of ByteDance and US national security officials, people said. These discussions focused on data security and ways to prevent information collected by TikTok about American users from being accessed by the Chinese government, they said.
But no imminent decision on how to solve the problems surrounding TikTok is expected, as the Biden administration determines its own response to the potential security risk posed by data collection from Chinese technology companies.
“We plan to develop a comprehensive approach to protecting US data that addresses the full range of threats we face,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne. “This includes the risk posed by Chinese applications and other software operating in the United States. In the coming months, we hope to review specific cases in light of a comprehensive understanding of the risks we face. ”