No Plans To Sell TikTok To US — ByteDance

DESPITE growing pressure from a new US law requiring its sale, ByteDance, the Chinese internet behemoth behind TikTok, has made it clear that it has no plans to sell the well-known video platform.

Concerns over national security prompted the law, which gives ByteDance nine months to break its connection with TikTok or risk being banned from the US.

ByteDance may be looking for ways to sell TikTok without its well-known algorithm, which suggests material to over a billion people worldwide, according to reports from The Information.

However, in a statement published on its Toutiao website in Chinese, ByteDance flatly denied any consideration of a sale, disputing these allegations.

TikTok has been involved in political and diplomatic disputes for a long time. During the Trump administration, the app was sought to be banned due to claims that it had ties to the Chinese government.

Concerns about data privacy and the possible misuse of user information continue despite TikTok's strenuous denials.

TikTok has invested about $1.5 billion in Project Texas, which aims to store US user data domestically, in an attempt to allay these worries.

Nevertheless, some contend that the problem goes beyond data storage and includes the mechanism that makes TikTok so successful.

Though legal experts think that national security considerations may prevail above free expression protections in the eyes of the US Supreme Court, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has promised to battle the new rule in court.

The projected value of TikTok, which is in the tens of billions of dollars, offers a substantial challenge for prospective buyers.

US tech giants like Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) may encounter regulatory barriers due to antitrust concerns; the algorithm itself, considered TikTok's crown asset, is still up for debate.

Beijing would also need to approve any transaction including the algorithm, as it has expressed disapproval of coerced divestitures of Chinese enterprises.