The sale of TikTok has become a little complicated. Microsoft is the main candidate for purchasing TikTok, however, a new law in China may make the sale more complicated or even not possible if the authorities in China decide so.
China has approved new regulations for the export of Chinese technologies abroad. These regulations focus on controlling what can or cannot be exported abroad, especially technologies that the government may consider sensitive. It can be, for example, artificial intelligence technologies, text or voice recognition, content suggestions. In short, intellectual property that they consider to endanger China.
TikTok’s answer to the United States
ByteDance has agreed to sell a part of TikTok to a company in the United States to satisfy the requirements of the United States so that the service can continue to operate. The United States has agreed to the proposal (with a commission in between) and several companies are already fighting to take over TikTok, with Microsoft being a big force, Oracle is a name that we see a lot these days.
With these new rules in Chinese law, the Asian country could have the final word for the sale of TikTok to a company outside of China. If they consider that TikTok (in particularly its recommendation algorithms) is intellectual property, ByteDance would need a license to be able to sell TikTok to someone in the United States. A response to the meddling of the United States government in the matter.
What will happen next in the sale of TikTok crysis?
At the moment it is not clear how exactly these new rules can influence the sale of TikTok. However, a government trade adviser told the state news agency Xinhua that ByteDance should consider “seriously and cautiously” whether or not it should stop its sales negotiations.
Meanwhile, in the other part of the world, the United States applied a veto on August 6 that blocks all transactions with ByteDance and requests a sale agreement in 45 days. On August 14, this order was extended to 90 days. Kevin Mayer, who came from Disney four months ago to be CEO at TikTok, resigned last week. TikTok, meanwhile, has sued the government of Donald Trump.
