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TikTok asks courts to clarify status of potential sale as deadline approaches

Company hasn't heard from Trump admin. in 'weeks'
TikTok asks courts to clarify status of potential sale as deadline approaches
Posted at 11:36 AM, Nov 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-11 15:48:10-05

The popular video-sharing app TikTok, its future in limbo since President Donald Trump tried to shut it down earlier this fall, is asking a federal court to intervene.

TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has until Thursday to sell off its U.S. operations under an executive order that Trump signed in August.

Trump in September gave his tentative blessing to a ByteDance proposal that would place TikTok under the oversight of American companies Oracle and Walmart. But TikTok said this week it’s received “no clarity” from the U.S. government about whether its proposals have been accepted.

ByteDance is now asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the actions of the Trump administration's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), who is overseeing the sale.

“For a year, TikTok has actively engaged with CFIUS in good faith to address its national security concerns, even as we disagree with its assessment,” TikTok says in a statement to The Verge. “In the nearly two months since the President gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement – but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework.”

“Facing continual new requests and no clarity on whether our proposed solutions would be accepted, we requested the 30-day extension that is expressly permitted in the August 14 order. Today, 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. We remain committed to working with the Administration — as we have all along — to resolve the issues it has raised, but our legal challenge today is a protection to ensure these discussions can take place.”