US tech company Microsoft on Sunday, 13 September, announced that TikTok has rejected its offer as the deadline came closer for the Chinese-owned video app to sell or shut down its operations in the United States.
TikTok has chosen Oracle to be the app’s technology partner for its US operations, reported The New York Times.
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas, ” said Microsoft in its statement.
Microsoft and Oracle were competing to acquire TikTok in the US.
United States President Donald Trump had on 14 August asked TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest the US operation of the app within 90 days, citing national security reasons.
Trump had claimed that TikTok is a national security threat and has close ties to the Chinese government.
TikTok sued the United States government on 24 August, accusing it of depriving the platform of due process when President Trump issued an executive order to block it from operating in the country.
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