TikTok Sale to Oracle, Walmart Is Shelved as Biden Opinions Safety

WASHINGTON – A U.S. plan to sell TikTok’s American operations to a group to which Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. owned, has been suspended indefinitely, as those familiar with the situation said, as President Biden undertakes a comprehensive review of his predecessor’s efforts to unlock the potential security risks posed by Chinese tech companies.

The TikTok deal, promoted by then-President Donald Trump, has stalled since last fall amid successful legal challenges for the U.S. government’s efforts by TikTok’s owner, China’s ByteDance Ltd.

In a new development late Wednesday, the government of Biden called for the government’s appeal against a federal district judge’s December ruling against the TikTok ban to be postponed.

In a lawsuit, the Biden administration said it had initiated a review of the agency’s actions to see if the national security threat cited by the Trump administration continues to warrant the ban. The Justice Department filing states that the TikTok and ByteDance delay request will not be denied.

Talks between representatives from ByteDance and US national security officials will continue, said those familiar with the talks. These discussions centered on data security and ways to prevent the Chinese government from accessing the information TikTok collects about American users.

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