TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has announced that they have no plans to sell — which would allow the popular social media platform to continue operating in the United States.
Joe Biden signed legislation into law on Wednesday that gives ByteDance, which is based in China, nine months to sell or be banned.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” ByteDance said in a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app that it owns, according to a report from CNN. “ByteDance doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok,” it said.
The Hill reports:
Even if TikTok were purchased in the U.S., it likely would be different from the app users use today because Chinese export rules would regulate whether the algorithm could be transferred, and the TikTok algorithm has been a key factor to its popularity among users.
The other route for TikTok to remain active in the U.S. is through a successful court case. TikTok announced Wednesday, immediately after Biden signed the law, that it would challenge it in court.
TikTok has already argued the law is “unconstitutional.”
“This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” the social media platform said in a statement. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail.”
The statement added that TikTok has “invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation.”
“This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans,” the company continued. “As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired.”
The Biden campaign has said that it is remaining active on TikTok despite claiming the app is a national security risk.
Former President Donald Trump has blasted Biden for the legislation, writing on Truth Social, “Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok.”
The Republican nominee said that Biden is the one pushing for the ban in order to “help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant.”
“He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party,” Trump continued.
Trump also asserted that the TikTok ban is “ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
“It’s called ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” Trump exclaimed. “Young people, and lots of others, must remember this on November 5th, ELECTION DAY, when they vote! They also must remember, more importantly, that he is destroying our Country, and is A MAJOR THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”
