TikTok ban: Why the app’s future in the US is still in question after Donald Trump’s election defeat

Despite his recent election loss, Donald Trump’s edict over TikTok’s ability to operate in the US technically still stands – and there’s less than 24 hours until the President’s deadline runs out.

Mr Trump issued an order in August requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s owner in China, to sell the US side of the business by 12 November unless it was granted a 30 day extention by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

ByteDance reached a deal in September to sell 20 per cent of its stake in TikTok to Oracle and Walmart, which has yet to be finalised, and said it applied for an extension last week but still has not received a response.

It is not clear what will happen once the deadline passes, but now that Mr Trump will not be serving a second term, TikTok does not look like one of the President’s top priorities.

Court appeal to stop order

ByteDance has now asked the federal appeals court to stop the order forcing it to sell the app’s US operations, Tech Crunch reports.

The company said it had worked to reach a negotiation with the CFIUS, but without an extension granted and the deadline soon approaching, it had to file a petition in court to save the company and its employees.

Mr Trump had threatened to ban the app in the US earlier this year, accusing TikTok of passing private data on to the Chinese government. TikTok has denied any wrongdoing, and its head of public policy for Europe, Theo Bertram, insisted that such claims were “completely false”. There has also been no evidence found so far to support the claim.

The President later approved the Oracle and Walmart deal with TikTok in September, but because it was never sanctioned by the Chinese government it has been in limbo ever since.

TikTok under Biden

Whether TikTok will be required to go ahead with the deal once Joe Biden takes office is not yet known.

A technology advisor for Mr Biden has said it is “too early to say” what the president-elect’s view on TikTok is, CNBC reported, but his campaign had told employees to delete the app off their work and personal devices in July due to safety concerns.

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