US extends TikTok sale deadline to Dec 4

WASHINGTON－The US Treasury on Wednesday decided on a late-hour extension to a deadline that had required ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to sell the popular social media platform's US business by Friday.

"The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has granted ByteDance a one-week extension, from Nov 27 to Dec 4, to allow time to review a revised submission that the committee recently received," a US Treasury spokesperson said.

The administration of US President Donald Trump previously had granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of the order issued in August, which was set to expire on Friday. Trump on Aug 14 had directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days.

The administration has expressed national security concerns over the app, and aimed to ban it if a divestment of the US business did not proceed. TikTok denies the claim.

The ban has been challenged in courts, including a case in Washington and a separate filing by content creators in a Pennsylvania court, which blocked the ban on Oct 30, though the government is appealing that order.

The White House has said TikTok must become a US firm controlled by US investors to avert the ban.

TikTok declined to comment beyond the filing.

New proposal

ByteDance has made a new proposal aimed at addressing the US government's concerns, said a person briefed on the matter who declined to detail that proposal, Reuters reported.

ByteDance made the proposal after disclosing on Nov 10 that it had submitted four prior proposals including one in November that sought to address US concerns by "creating a new entity, wholly owned by Oracle, Walmart and existing US investors in ByteDance, that would be responsible for handling US users' data and content moderation".

China's Commerce Ministry published new rules in August that added "civilian use" to a list of the types of technology that are restricted for export, which could make it more difficult for Byte-Dance to sell TikTok's US business.

A deal appeared to take shape in recent months that would allow Silicon Valley software giant Oracle to be the data partner for a newly incorporated TikTok Global, with retailer Walmart joining as a commercial partner.

While Trump signaled his approval for the plan, it has not been finalized and the prospects remain unclear.

Agencies via Xinhua