The U.S. government is still at loggerheads with TikTok regarding the sale of TikTok’s assets in the U.S. According to the latest report, the mandatory sale of TikTok US assets can not happen before the set deadline. To this end, the U.S. government has once again postponed the deadline date for the transaction.
In order to meet the security concerns of the U.S. government, TikTok is still negotiating the sale of its U.S. assets. The initial deadline for the conclusion of the deal is on Friday. However, since negotiations are still on, the government will have to extend the deadline again. This is not the first time that the government will be extending this deadline. In fact, it has extended the deadline several times in the past. A week ago, the US government extended the deadline for selling TikTok’s US assets to this Friday.
Nevertheless, the final agreement to sell TikTok’s US assets still needs to be approved by Chinese regulators.
Court stops the U.S. Department of Commerce from enforcing TikTok ban
Last month, the US Department of Commerce confirmed that in view of the temporary injunction issued by the Federal Court of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it will not enforce the injunction that would actually shut down TikTok. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice said that it had appealed to the interim injunction issued by Pennsylvania Judge, Wendy Beetlestone.
Gizchina News of the week
The temporary injunction prevents the US government from imposing restrictions on TikTok from November 12. The order issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce in August is supposed to be effective from Thursday. The order will prohibit companies from trading with TikTok. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, stated that this actually prohibits the use of TikTok in the United States.
In addition, ByteDance has filed a complaint with the court, seeking to prevent the US government from forcing it to sell TikTok. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington required ByteDance and the Trump administration to submit motions and other documents of the case before December 14 and 28, respectively.
With the changing political situation in the U.S., the negotiations will take a different shape soon. In fact, TikTok might not like to reach an agreement right now. It may attempt to drag the deal and take its chances with the incoming government. However, the Biden-led administration may just be as tough as Trump’s when it comes to Chinese businesses.
