No deal between TikTok and US govt over asset sale, talks to continue

Popular short-video application TikTok and US President Donald Trump’s administration did not come to a conclusion over the sale of the company’s US operations on Friday, reported AFP quoting a source familiar with the matter.

The Committee on Foreign Investment had given the Friday deadline to TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to come up with an acceptable deal to put TikTok’s American assets into US hands.

Talks between TikTok and US government negotiators will continue even after the deadline passes, and people in the US will be able to use the application as the government cannot enforce a ban on TikTok, in compliance with a court order in favour of the Chinese-owned sensation.

The White House has repeatedly claimed that TikTok is a security threat to the country due to its links to the Chinese government.

However, the company has defended itself against allegations of data transfers to the Chinese government.

A US federal judge in late October issued an injunction temporarily blocking an executive order by Trump aimed at banning TikTok, throwing up a legal roadblock.

A temporary injunction issued in September in a separate suit filed by TikTok itself prevented the government from removing it from mobile application download platforms.

A tentative deal has been unveiled that would make Silicon Valley giant Oracle the technology partner for TikTok and a stakeholder in a new entity to be known as TikTok Global.