China Would Rather TikTok Be Banned Than Force A Sale

Earlier reports had indicated that if TikTok wanted to keep operating in the US, they would need to sell themselves off to a US company. The app is currently owned by China company ByteDance, although they do have a US base of operations. However, it seems that China is not too pleased with the idea.

According to a new report from Reuters, it has been revealed by their sources that apparently China would much rather the app be banned and closed down in the US rather than to force a sale. The report claims that by forcing a sale, it would result in both China and ByteDance appear “weak”. ByteDance has since refuted the report by saying that the Chinese government had never suggested to them that they should shut down TikTok in the US or any other market.

China had recently introduced new rules that could also make it harder for TikTok to be sold, where the rules say that the export of Chinese technology would need to have express approval by the government. In this instance, we imagine that the government will probably enforce those rules to prevent a sale.

However, there is some good news for TikTok users in the US. A more recent report claims that the company is currently in talks with the US government about potentially avoiding a sale and coming to some kind of resolution instead. This could involve restructuring the company to make it so that they are perceived as less of a national security threat.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Apps, China, Legal, tiktok