Since the Trump Administration ordered TikTok to sell its US operations to a US company or be permanently banned in America, there were reports saying Microsoft was the likely suitor. However, it seems Twitter is in talks with ByteDance to buy TikTok’s US operations.
ByteDance has 45 days to sell TikTok’s US operations, ordered by an executive order signed by President Trump. Right now, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters claim the company is in preliminary talks with Twitter. However, Reuters questions whether or not Twitter could actually afford to buy TikTok. Right now, Twitter’s market cap is $30 billion. That isn’t enough to purchase TikTok’s assets in the U.S. Regardless, according to Reuters, Mirosoft is still the front running for the purchase.
TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration
According to NPR, ByteDance is planning to sue the Trump administration to challenge the executive order. We can expect the suit very soon. The suit likely with argue that Trump’s actions are unconstitutional. ByteDance says it wasn’t given a chance to respond to the allegations. Trump believes TikTok, which is Chinese-owned, poses a security threat and the app is likely being used to relay data to the Chinese government. The order gives ByteDance 45 days to find a new owner for the app. Trump also suggested that U.S. government should be given some of the proceeds of TikTok’s sale.
ByteDance claims the accusation that its app poses a national security threat are baseless.
“We are shocked by the recent executive order, which was issued without any due process,” TikTok said of the order in a statement, per NPR. “The text of the decision makes it plain that there has been a reliance on unnamed ‘reports’ with no citations, fears that the app ‘may be’ used for misinformation campaigns with no substantiation of such fears, and concerns about the collection of data that is industry standard for thousands of mobile apps around the world.”
We will update you more as this story develops.