It’s been TikTok everyday and that news might be boring to you already especially with the meddling of political figures in the tech affairs but that’s what it is right now and exact what TikTok is facing in the US and China.
The US initially took a stance against the short video-sharing social network over privacy concerns and the US President, Donald Trump had made it known that he’s considering banning the service in the country as well as saying that he’s not impressed that US companies are interested in buying it from ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.
Then by August the just few days after the president had made his initial statement about his disinterest in the service, he did signed an executive order that would block transactions with Bytedance on September 20th which will then be extended to November 12th which gives the Chinese tech giant an extra 5 days to close any deals with US companies or else.
Microsoft had been heavily linked with acquiring TikTok over the last number of weeks while Google Discover also wants to take a bite then Walmart joined in the race with Microsoft for the acquisition but then now we have the Chinese government which could probably block the sale of the video sharing service.
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The Chinese government has changed its law on tech exports which bans the commercialization of specific technology categories to foreign countries. According to The Guardian, among those categories falls video-sharing app.
“Late on Friday, Beijing issued new restrictions or bans on tech exports, requiring companies to seek government approval – a process that can take up to 30 days. In mid-August, Trump gave the company 90 days to sell up or face a shutdown.
“The rules, which hadn’t been updated since 2008, are believed to be aimed at delaying the sale of TikTok to US buyers, as ordered by the US president.
“Some technologies were removed from the list of regulated exports, including vaccine technologies, but the 23 new additions included tech relating to AI interfaces, voice recognition, and content recommendation analysis.
“TikTok’s recommendation algorithm relies on domestic technology that might need to be transferred to a new overseas owner.”
Further, Professor Cui Fan, a Chinese trade expert, told news agency Xinhua that:
“China was not in favour of “decoupling” from the US, but “some forefront technologies, however, might impact national security and public welfare, and need to be included in catalogue management.
“Cui said ByteDance should “seriously and cautiously consider whether it is necessary to suspend the [TikTok sale negotiations]”.
The future of TikTok remains absolutely uncertain as there are increasing number of things happening with the company with different interests from different companies everywhere in the US and the continuous trade tension between the US and China continues to intensify which could lead to the company’s sales being blocked by the Chinese government or if the November 12th timeline is reached, US companies will not be able to strike a deal with Bytedance any longer.
