WASHINGTON — The popular video-sharing app TikTok has been given yet another lifeline in the United States after the Trump administration failed to enforce a Thursday deadline requiring the app’s parent company to sell off its U.S. operations to an American vendor.
The app, operated by the Chinese-owned company ByteDance, was granted a 15-day extension to address divestment and other national security concerns cited by the U.S. government. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) confirmed the new deadline of Nov. 27 on Friday.
“The President’s August 14 Order requires ByteDance and TikTok Inc. to undertake specific divestments and other measures to address the national security risk arising from ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly,” the Treasury Department wrote in a statement. “Consistent with the Order, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has granted ByteDance a 15-day extension of the original November 12, 2020 deadline. This extension will provide the parties and the Committee additional time to resolve this case in a manner that complies with the Order.”
The extension comes amid a months-long battle between the administration and the Chinese company, as President Trump maintains TikTok could be used for espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. In August, Trump threatened to ban the platform from the United States entirely unless it was sold to American investors.
ByteDance denies that its apps can collect data on Americans for espionage purposes.
Trump’s executive order originally gave ByteDance until Nov. 12 to find an American buyer. In September, the president gave his tentative blessing to a ByteDance proposal meant to resolve U.S. national security concerns by placing TikTok under the oversight of Oracle and Walmart, each of which would also have a financial stake in the company.
Under the proposed deal, Oracle would be responsible for combing TikTok’s data to ensure the app isn’t feeding customer information to the Chinese government. Walmart had signed on as a commercial partner.
But in a court filing submitted on Tuesday, TikTok claimed they had received “no clarity” from the U.S. government about whether its proposals have been accepted.
“With the November 12 CFIUS deadline imminent and without an extension in hand, we have no choice but to file a petition in court to defend our rights and those of our more than 1,500 employees in the US,” the filing read in part.
Lawyers for TikTok had reportedly requested a 30-day extension; a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved a 15-day extension, per court documents filed on Friday.
It was up to Attorney General William Barr to enforce Thursday’s deadline, and it remains unclear why the Justice Department has seemingly pulled back on its scrutiny of the company.
The company itself isn’t alone in taking the battle to the courts — in October, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone of Pennsylvania sided with a group of TikTok “creators” who argued Trump’s proposed ban was an infringement on their First Amendment right to free speech.
Spectrum News has reached out to TikTok for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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