TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is reportedly I’m still looking for no-sale options to stay in the US after the Supreme Court upheld a national security law demanding that TikTok’s US operations be closed or sold to a non-foreign adversary.
Last weekend, TikTok briefly went dark in the US. only to be back online hours later after Donald Trump assured ByteDance that the US law would not apply. Then, shortly after Trump took office, signed an executive order delaying implementation of the law for 75 days while consulting with advisers to “pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.”
Trump’s executive order did not suggest that he intended to try to override the national security law’s ban or sale requirements. But that hasn’t stopped ByteDance, board member Bill Ford told attendees at the World Economic Forum (WEF), from pursuing a possible no-sale option that “could involve a change in local control to ensure it complies with the American law”, Bloomberg reported.
It is currently unclear how ByteDance could negotiate a no-sell option without facing a ban. Joe Biden’s Expanded Efforts Through Texas Project to keep US TikTok data out of the hands of Chinese-controlled ByteDance without forcing a dead-end sale, prompting Congress to pass national security law requiring a ban or sale.
At the WEF, Ford said ByteDance’s board is “optimistic that we will find a solution” that prevents ByteDance from giving up a significant portion of TikTok’s operations.
“There are a number of alternatives that we can talk to President Trump and his team about that do not involve selling the company and that allow it to continue operating, perhaps with a change of control of some type, but short of having to sell.” “Ford said.