Social-Media
New technology export laws in China may have an effect on the selling of TikTok to a US business
TikTok sales plans could have a new challenge, with China enforcing new regulations on AI technology exports, the New York Times reported. The new export control laws, which the Chinese government considers to be vulnerable to technology, may mean that TikTok's parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, would require a license before it can sell TikTok to an American company.
The new Law bans the export of technologies, including text processing, voice recognition and content recommendations, without a license from the Chinese Government. A Chinese government official told the state-run Xinhua News Agency that ByteDance should "seriously and carefully" consider stopping the selling of TikTok.
Microsoft was the leading player in the purchase of TikTok, apparently including Walmart, with rumors stating that everyone from Twitter to Netflix to Oracle have had different talks with TikTok. In the middle of all the uncertainty, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned on August 27, less than six months.
President Trump signed an executive order on August 6, banning all deals of ByteDance and requiring that an American company buy TikTok's US firm. The order was to take place within 45 days. Then, on August 14, the President signed another executive order, this time granting ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin off TikTok in the US.
It wasn't clear on Saturday that the Chinese government will move to block the sale altogether.
The massively successful video sharing site reached 2 billion downloads worldwide in April, with 315 million installs in the first quarter of the year alone.
The TikTok spokesman refused to comment on Saturday.
