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Doris Yu · · 1 min readByteDance asks US court to intervene in Trump’s TikTok divestment order
On August 14, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to divest its US TikTok business within 90 days. The deadline falls on November 12.
“Without an extension in hand, we have no choice but to file a petition in court to defend our rights,” ByteDance.
The US government is concerned that TikTok may collect personal data of users in the US and send it to the Chinese government. ByteDance, however, has denied this. TikTok has around 50 million daily active users and 92 million monthly active users in the US.
In 2017, the Chinese tech giant acquired US-based social media service provider Musical.ly and merged it into TikTok.
Trump’s order “seeks to compel the wholesale divestment” of TikTok, a multibillion-dollar business built on technology that ByteDance developed based on the three-year-old transaction.
In September, the Beijing-based company reached an agreement with multinational computer technology corporation Oracle and ecommerce giant Walmart to form a new entity in the US. The finalization of the preliminary deal is still in process.
Edited by Collin Furtado and Eileen C. Ang
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