ByteDance Ltd. needs to work overtime if it wants to keep TikTok in the United States.
Chief Executive Officer Zhang Yiming said in a letter to employees after the U.S. government threatens to ban the short-video app in the country. It now faces a deadline to close its deal with Microsoft, according to Bloomberg.
As confirmed on Sunday, August 2, Microsoft continues to discuss its acquisition plan for the popular app from the Beijing-based company, although President Donald Trump said he would ban the app as early as August 1. The statement was made after a dialogue between Trump and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
TikTok remains under fire due to worries about the company's data collection and its connection to the Chinese government. However, it continuously tried to pacify the regulators by hiring Walt Disney Co. Kevin Mayer as its chief executive officer along with other thousand employees in the U.S. as well as by disassociating its domestic operations from the Chinese government.
Tech Times earlier reported that Republican Senator Lindsey said that President Trump wants to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party does not have access to all the private data acquired by TikTok from American users.
Similarly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump will ban other Chinese software companies that are directly sending data to the Chinese government. In 2019, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) probed on overseas acquisitions of businesses across the country, particularly the sale of Musical.ly to ByteDance in 2017 for $1 billion. This later resulted in TikTok's creation. Meanwhile, a report from the Daily Mail said that lawmakers urged the U.S. president to support the deal between Microsoft and TikTok.
Microsoft said in a statement that despite the current issues TikTok is facing, it will continue the acquisition talks not only in the U.S., but also in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to give the tech giant the operations in these markets.
Read also: Trump 'May Allow' Microsoft to Buy TikTok on the Following Conditions
We don't agree with the decision
Meanwhile, ByteDance founder and CEO Yiming said in an internal company letter on Monday, August 3, that they do not agree with the decision of selling the U.S. operations of TikTok because they have always adhered to protecting the users' data and keeping the neutrality and transparency of the platform. "We have not reached a final solution yet," Zhang said.
The CEO was also dismayed that CFIUS still proposes ByteDance has to sell TikTok's U.S. operation, despite their repeated underlining that it is a privately-run company and its willingness to adopt even more technical solutions to relieve their worries. "We do not agree with this decision," wrote Zhang. "We've always firmly protected the security of users' data, the platform's independence, and transparency."
Meanwhile, the CEO wrote that the company is still engaged in internal discussions and no final decisions have been made, although it is in negotiations with another tech firm. On the other hand, Microsoft said in a statement that it values the actions that the U.S. government has continuously laid to uphold sensitive data of American people.
For more updates on the deal between Microsoft and TikTok, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Read also: POTUS Trump Says He Will Ban TikTok in the US as Soon as Saturday; App Faces New Challenge
