China-based ByteDance Technology Co.—which owns video-sharing app TikTok—has been granted a new seven-day extension to sell its popular app, according to a court filing.
TikTok, wildly popular among American teens, has come under bipartisan scrutiny over national security and privacy concerns in relation to its Chinese ownership. The crux of the concern is that under a 2017 national intelligence law, Chinese companies are required to provide their data to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Under pressure from the U.S. government, ByteDance has been in talks for months to finalize a deal with Walmart Inc. and Oracle Corp. to shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity.
“The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has granted ByteDance a one-week extension, from November 27, 2020, to December 4, 2020, to allow time to review a revised submission that the Committee recently received,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said on Nov. 25, Variety reported.
The committee reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks. ByteDance acquired TikTok through a 2017 acquisition.The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Transportation Security Administration have already barred TikTok on government devices, and in December 2019, the U.S. Army blocked its soldiers from using the app.
Separate restrictions on TikTok from the Commerce Department have been blocked by federal courts, including transaction curbs that TikTok said could effectively ban the app’s use in the United States.
A Commerce Department ban on Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google offering TikTok for download for new U.S. users that had been set to take effect on Sept. 27 has also been blocked.
Reuters contributed to this report.