On July 8th， news broke that ByteDance had reportedly agreed to sell its US operations of TikTok to an American consortium led by Oracle， while retaining a minority stake. However， ByteDance has since responded， stating that this information is inaccurate.
The purported transaction was aimed at complying with the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act，” which addresses US concerns regarding data security. This legislation mandated that ByteDance divest TikTok’s US business to a non-Chinese entity within 270 days， with a potential ban on the app in the US after January 19， 2025， if the sale did not occur. This deadline was subsequently extended by former President Trump’s administration， with the new cutoff date set for September 17， 2025. This extension marked the third time the administration had placed TikTok under scrutiny， with previous grace periods totaling more than six months.
It’s important to note that earlier in April， ByteDance had issued a statement indicating that discussions with the US government were ongoing and no agreement had been reached， with significant disagreements still existing on several key points. Furthermore， under Chinese law， any such agreement would be subject to relevant review procedures.
