WASHINGTON | The Trump administration said on Wednesday it was working on a solution to the Chinese application TikTok that the government seeks to ban from the United States, while the Chinese group asked for a period of one month before being forced to sell its American activities.
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TikTok, a subsidiary of the Chinese group Bytedance, filed a petition on Tuesday with a Washington court to prevent an order given by Donald Trump’s government on August 14 from taking effect on Thursday. TikTok had also complained of a lack of feedback in discussions with the US government.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury responded by saying in a statement that it remained “focused on finding a solution to the national security risks arising from the acquisition of Musical.ly by ByteDance, pursuant to the order of the 14th. August signed by the president ”.
The Trump administration wants to ban the popular application of Chinese group ByteDance in the United States because it believes there is a risk of user data transfers to China.
ByteDance had established TikTok in the United States by buying the Musical.ly application three years ago, already present in the United States, and then merging it with TikTok.
While ByteDance complained of “constantly facing new requests” and “lacking visibility on the possibility that (its) proposed solutions will be accepted”, the Treasury affirms on the contrary “to have been clear with ByteDance concerning the steps necessary to reach a solution.
In an August 14 decree against the social network, President Donald Trump demanded that ByteDance sell TikTok’s US activities within 90 days, in the name of “US national security.”
After negotiations with several companies, ByteDance and TikTok offered to form a new company involving IT group Oracle as a technology partner in the United States and retail giant Walmart as a business partner.
The project seemed to suit the US administration, but the platform is still awaiting the green light.